Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
2
Society and Ideology: Changes
in Family Time Perceptions
with Implications for Tourism
Heike Schänzel
Introduction
Increasing importance is placed by society on families spending time
together at home, during leisure time and on holiday. Several online and
printed magazines are available in Europe, North America and Australasia
dedicated to 'family times' (e.g. http://www.familytimes.biz and http://
www.familytimesinc.com) and newspaper articles urge parents 'to turn off
phones, computers to spend more time with children' (Doherty, 2011). The
idealisation of family time in Western societies has led to growing societal
pressure on parents through the media and peers to ensure 'good' parenting
(Daly, 1996a). This comes despite the common misconceptions that parents
are too busy to spend enough time with their children and that families have
less time to relax, play, communicate and sit down for meals together (Mintel,
2009). In fact, most studies of family time use suggest that parents are now
more involved in their children's leisure life than were previous generations
(e.g. Bianchi
et al
., 2006; Gauthier
et al
., 2004). Instead, a dominant ideology
of parenting has emerged with higher valuation of family time, which has
led to a new orthodoxy about leisure (Shaw, 2010) and tourism. Within this
context, family holidays are perceived as opportunities for bonding to ensure
the happiness and togetherness of the family, away from the distractions
of everyday life (Carr, 2011). Obrador (2012) found that family package
holidays are saturated with ideas of intimacy, love and togetherness. This
chapter examines the changing perceptions of time and roles within the
family by reviewing the academic literature on family and leisure studies.
It presents a theoretical discourse and sociological context for the changes
that influence family tourism and provides understandings for trends and
indings explored in other chapters of this topic. It highlights a generational
and ideological disjuncture in understandings of family time as affected by
individual realities and discusses the relationship between and implications
of societal trends in family life, family leisure and family tourism.
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