In this seminar I will be exploring representations of grandmothers and other kin in TV parenting programmes. Grandmothers exist just one step outside the nuclear family. They could therefore more accurately be described as kin, or existing within kinship networks, that existing in ‘The Family’. As such, the presence of a Grandmother in a family home can, theoretically, act as a disrupter and threat to strict interpretations and definitions of the family based on modern nuclear family ideals. In this paper I will be arguing that within Reality Television Parenting Programmes this is exactly what happens, and results in a presentation of grandmothers in passive and negative terms only, the most dominant two being Grandmother as interfering but incompetent and Grandmother as helpless victim.
In contrast, discussions with focus groups show audiences with a complex interpretation of these messages, underplayed by a very different concept of family roles with clearly acknowledged space for grandmothers.
Why is it interesting to look at Grandmothers? Grandmothers exist just one step outside the nuclear family. They could therefore more accurately be described as kin, or existing within kinship networks, that existing in ‘The Family’. As such, the presence of a Grandmother in a family home can, theoretically, act as a disrupter and threat to strict interpretations and definitions of the family based on contemporary nuclear family ideals where households are ‘supposed’ to be composed of Daddy, Mammy, two point four children and a dog. In this presentation I will be arguing that this is exactly what happens, and results in a presentation of grandmothers in passive and negative terms only, the most dominant two being Grandmother as incompetent and Grandmother as helpless victim
Highlight picture of Jo Frost – Supernanny is best known (5 million viewers) Highlight picture of David Coleman – will be looking closely at Irish versions Play clip, back to this screen
Reference: CC Harris 1969
Reference: Barrette and McIntosh 1982
Meade and Wolfstein From industrialisation onwards high infant mortality rates and mother blame Eugenics brought concern for controlling women’s and children's risky bodies Dies out between 50’s and 70’s
Uncertainty and Barbie dolls Reference?
Summarising these ideas parenting training is put forward as, by necessity, replacing something that existed in the past, historically, or in traditional societies. That ‘something’ is a complex entity, but has at its core the extended families capacity to teach parenting skills to each subsequent generation. This capacity is presented as having suddenly ruptured, or broken down, some time around or after the 1950s.
Stress mother=mother in law Key 1950’s experts – Hugh Jolly and Dr. Spock, also women’s magazines problem and advice pages Even as experts justify that they give advice, in part, because ‘granny’ isn’t doing her job any more, so they find that granny may actually still be giving advice, and it doesn’t always equal their own. And so warnings against the advice of grandmothers appear form the 50’s onwards.
Play 2 clips Evelyn 12 mins to 13.34 Peggy 17.35 mins
In this transcription Evelyn Struggles to care for the boys when Emma is in beauty college (although the camera tells a very different story to the narrator here, showing mother daughter and grandchildren resident together and granny involved in many ways, not only when mother is out of the house) its all too much for her, and as a result the boys walk all over her (therefore, they are not being ‘parented’ while in her care)
‘ In many cultures of the world, a child is thought to embody the relationship between its parents and the relationship its parents have with other kin. The child is thus regarded as a social being, and what is reproduced is a set of social relationships. At the least, the child reproduces parents’ relational capacities in its own future to make relations itself, as often indicated for instance in marriage rules.’ (Marilyn Strathern, p294) There is no choice not to consume, but ‘ What is ‘extended’ is the choice to have children’ (Marilyn Strathern, p295)
One reading of these portrayals would suggest that a subtle, overall message is coming across that on the one hand childcare is mothers business only, in the process of actually carrying out the work, but decision making requires a father. If no father is available then this decision making role may then (possibly must then, if mother is under a certain age) be filled by a grandmother, as mothers decision making capacity requires just as much supervision as fathers nappy changing and baby feeding capacity does.
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