Abstract
This work considers the construction of children's food and children's eating practices, in the narratives of children, aged 11–12, and their parents, and explores what these constructions reveal about child–adult relations and the nature of family life. It argues that, implicit to the differentiation of children's and adult's food and eating practices within families are generationally nuanced food moralities. We suggest that the day-to-day, ongoing negotiation and management of these generationally nuanced food moralities is integral to the constitution of intergenerational relations and generational identity and, indeed, the idea of ‘family’ itself.
Notes
The Children as Family Participants study formed part of an interdisciplinary Research Programme, Changing Families, Changing Food, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (http://www.shef.ac.uk/familiesandfood/)
On occasions, however, both parents chose to take part and were interviewed.
All children have been assigned pseudonyms: parents were not assigned separate pseudonyms and extracts from their transcripts are referred to as the ‘parent of …’.
Actimel is a trademarked ‘probiotic drinking yogurt’ which is marketed as having the potential to ‘ help support your body's defences’ (http://www.actimel.co.uk/About/Default.aspx Accessed 8 August 2009)
Jamie Oliver has hosted a number of food related television programmes: ‘Jamies School Dinners’, in which the celebrity chef campaigned to ban ‘junk’ food in children's school dinners was particularly influential at the time of data collection. http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/J/jamies_school_dinners/