'It's a terrible thing when your children are sick': motherhood, emotion and the discourse of control in the context of caring for ill children

Abstract

This article draws upon research involving indepth interviews with 60 mothers of young children about the mundane aspects of promoting their children’s health and dealing with their illnesses, allergies or developmental problems. The study found that the discourse of control was central to women’s discussions. The interviewees positioned themselves as primarily responsible for their children’s health and attempted to conform to expectations that they closely monitor their children for signs of illness and take appropriate action when children were ill or experiencing developmental problems. Such caring was often an intensely embodied and negative emotional experience for the mothers, particularly if they felt as if they had lost control over their children’s bodies. Mothers’ actions, beliefs and concepts related to caring for their children involved a complex interaction between highly rational, self-reflexive, unemotive consideration and use of expert advice and highly emotional and apparently instinctive unreflexive responses produced through the body.