I blame the mother: educating parents and the gendered nature of parenting orders

Abstract

There has been an increasing focus from policymakers, academics and journalists on parents as the source of their child's anti-social behaviour both in and outside of the formal school setting. One intervention proffered is the parenting order. The language of parenting orders and parenting interventions obscures a distinct truth, that parenting orders are really mothering orders. This paper draws on findings generated during interviews with 26 parents attending a parenting education programme in a city in the north of England. This paper explores the gendered nature of parental education, in that the overwhelming majority of parents ordered by the courts to attend parenting classes are women. The paper explores mothers' experiences of receiving coercive parenting education, examines the reasons why mothers were given parenting orders and explores the nature of these mothers' relationships with their child's school.

Keywords:

• parenting orders
• mothers
• parenting education
• parent–school relationships

Notes

A multi-agency team (police, probation, social work, health, education, housing) which co-ordinates youth justice services at a local level.

Fixed Penalty Notices are a financial penalty. They do not result in a criminal conviction but failure to pay them can result in large fines, and possibly imprisonment.

In England and Wales the age of criminal responsibility is 10 years.

Eighteen-month-old Peter Connelly, known as Baby P, was a high-profile case in which Peter's mother, her boyfriend and his brother were convicted of causing or allowing his death in 2007.

This is where one person housed in housing association/local government social housing swaps their accommodation with someone in similar housing in a different area.