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In-Depth Information
2007) which involves a concept of contestation and negotiation (Thorpe
& Daly, 1999). However, there is little research that compares parents' and
children's perspectives on family time (Carr, 2011; Daly, 2001). Two studies
found that children like family time to be less rushed (Galinsky, 1999)
and that it is not the quantity of time but
how
parents spend it with their
children that is important to them (Christensen, 2002). Also, children are
happier with the amount of family time they have than are their parents
(Christensen, 2002; Galinsky, 1999; Kränzl-Nagl & Beham, 2007), highlight-
ing a potential generational disjuncture in understandings of family time.
This indicates that the importance of family togetherness as espoused by
adult society may not hold the same significance for children (Carr, 2011). In
fact, Christensen (2002: 85) reports that the call for parents to spend more
'quality time' with their children is problematic if this 'denies children their
need to be both with and without their families'. All this underlines the
gendered and generational differences in the social meaning of family time,
in that mothers seek higher-quality family time and fathers seek quantita-
tively more family time, while children want unstressed time together.
The Idealisation of Family Leisure in Western Society
Leisure researchers have devoted considerable attention to family leisure.
Most of this work is driven by the popular sentiment that 'a family that
plays together stays together ', based on the recognition that leisure ex-
periences provide the context in which most family members establish,
maintain and develop relationships with each other (Siegenthaler & O'Dell,
2000). The positive contributions of family leisure to family cohesion,
family interaction and overall satisfaction with family life dominate the
literature (Orthner & Mancini, 1990). Zabriskie and McCormick (2003)
found that having both 'core' (i.e. everyday, home-based) and 'balance' (i.e.
less common, away from home) family leisure activities was associated with
higher levels of family functioning. Family leisure is also advanced as a key
context in which most children develop lifelong skills and values (Mannell
& Kleiber, 1997; Shaw & Dawson, 2001). Family leisure has been reported to
have benefits by researchers operating from a social psychological paradigm,
but this work did not consider gender inequality (Shaw, 1997), societal
influences, children's perspectives or conflict.
There is a realisation among researchers that 'family leisure' has an
underlying ideological notion that reflects a hegemonic and romanticised
version of family life that reifies family leisure; this notion permeates not
only leisure studies but also the popular media (Harrington, 2001; Hilbrecht
et al
., 2008). This idealisation of family leisure can have negative conse-
quences for parents through increased feelings of guilt and stress, especially
among mothers, when the ideal of family togetherness is difficult for them
to achieve (Shaw, 2001). Increasing research evidence emphasises that family
