Abstract
This article explores mothers’ narratives of ‘prepping’ behaviours. Prepping involves the management of stockpiled household items in anticipation of marketplace disruption. In this article, we use anticipated food shortages following the UK’s exit from the EU (‘Brexit’) as our context. Drawing on interview data, we highlight how mothers embed prepping into their ongoing pursuit of intensive motherhood, bound in the highly gendered practice of feeding the family. While adhering to elements of intensive motherhood ideology (their actions are labour intensive/child centred), participants reveal a hidden element to their practice. We introduce the notion of ‘survivalist intensive motherhood’ to understand their actions. Survivalist intensive motherhood departs from earlier intensive motherhood studies due to the largely invisible nature of preparations and the trade-offs made to feed the family during resource scarcity.
Highlights
Intensive parenting represents a growing trend within parenting cultures (Cappellini et al, 2019)
Using the context of mothers who identify as Brexit preppers we demonstrate how some of the tenets of intensive motherhood, public display and healthy food production/consumption, recede as mothering practices are framed around the survival of the family
In a world increasingly characterised by uncertainty and existential anxiety posed by an array of different threats, our research offers valuable insight into how this permeates the everyday realm of the family
Summary
Intensive parenting represents a growing trend within parenting cultures (Cappellini et al, 2019). Based on our findings and existing research on intensive mothers, we develop the concept of the ‘survivalist intensive mother’, defined as a mother who anticipates marketplace disruption and resource scarcity, prepares and develops the skills to manage, protect and conceal their behaviours, and makes discontinuous trade-offs to ensure the survival and wellbeing of their children, while maintaining everyday performances of motherhood.
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