Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
leisure activities may not always be a positive experience for all family
members (Larson
et al
., 1997; Shaw & Dawson, 2001); a common example
is conflict over watching television (Harrington, 2001). Harrington's (2001)
study highlights how parents feel pressured to put their children always
first, at the expense of their own leisure. Acknowledgement of both the
benefits and the difficulties of family leisure can lead to a more realistic view
of this valued aspect of family life (Shaw & Dawson, 2003/2004). This also
includes recognising the implications that new ideologies of parenthood and
parental responsibilities have for family leisure and the disjuncture with
children's perceptions.
From the parents' perspective, family leisure in fact involves work as well
as fun, and has been characterised as 'purposive leisure' (Shaw & Dawson,
2001), where the focus is on planning and facilitating leisure for the purpose
of health, developmental and educational benefits for the children and the
family as a unit. This idea of an instrumental or goal-directed orientation for
family leisure activities can be linked to changed parental ideologies but has
received little attention in the literature (Shaw, 2010). Another increasing
trend has been towards organised activities for children - notably sports
activities - which are perceived by parents as safe and 'good', at the expense
of free play; this trend has been lamented by child development experts
(Guldberg, 2009). Parents, and particularly fathers, are often involved in
the organisation, management and coaching of children's sports as avenues
to strengthen and enhance their relationship with their children (Coakley,
2006; Harrington, 2006; Kay, 2009). The facilitation of children's partici-
pation in organised leisure activities clearly ties to new ideas of parenting
and the fulfilment of parental responsibilities (Trussell, 2009) along with
changing gender roles.
Understanding fatherhood is a relatively new pursuit for family leisure
scholarship (Kay, 2009; Such, 2006). Leisure-based activities seem to be more
prominent in fathering than they are in mothering (Kay, 2006). For example,
in Australia sport is perceived as a major site at which 'fathering' can occur
and at which fathers can show an emotional connection to their children
(Harrington, 2006). Recent publications on fatherhood in leisure (Kay,
2006, 2009) show that mothers perceive family leisure as more work-like or
'being there' for the children. In contrast, fathers describe leisure to mean
'being with' their children, resulting in a kind of 'leisure-based' parenting
(Such, 2006), including the opportunity for non-resident fathers 'to parent'
(Jenkins & Lyons, 2006). There is also a sense of fostering the next genera-
tion through children's leisure activities which is central to the generative
notion of fathering (Harrington, 2006). Despite this, the evidence to date
shows that mothers continue to facilitate most leisure experiences for their
families, which adds to their overwhelming workloads (Shaw, 2010).
Fathers still see the traditional provider role as the defining function
of fathering, which can be contextualised by an 'ethic of work' with an
