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Preferred term

sensitive mothering  

Definition

  • Sensitive mothering is a term explored by Valerie Walkerdine and Helen Lucey in their book, Democracy in the Kitchen: Regulating Mothers and Socialising Daughters (1989), and is specifically assigned to middle-class (bourgeois) mothering. Sensitive mothering is a practice and ideology that focuses on the mother as the sole caregiver, putting the child's needs and wants above others; relies upon acknowledged expert(s), whether governmental, institutional, or popular for knowledge on how to mother; avoids conflict with a child; and displaces, avoids, and reinvents housework when children are present. [Source: Encyclopedia of Motherhood; Sensitive Mothering (Walkerdine and Lucey)]

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URI

https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/sensitive_mothering

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