First-Time Parenting Journeys: Expectations and Realities

First-Time Parenting Journeys explores the experiences of heterosexual first-time parents, highlighting the impact of social norms on their journeys to parenthood. The book provides a critical account of how these norms shape, regulate, and potentially delimit experiences of new parenthood for heterosexual couples, drawing on qualitative longitudinal research from Australia. The critical conceptual framework has broader applicability across Western contexts in understanding normative family structures and parenting practices.

Format: Hardback
Length: 172 pages
Publication date: 09 March 2023
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

First-time parenting experiences for heterosexual couples are frequently treated as the unmarked norm in research on reproduction. First-Time Parenting Journeys provides a critical analysis of how social norms about parenthood shape, regulate, and potentially limit the experiences of new parents, while also exploring what it means to be situated within the norm. The book is based on qualitative longitudinal research and tells the story of journeys to parenthood, highlighting the impact of gender norms, moral claims, emotion work, and generativity. While drawing on Australian data, the critical conceptual framework has broader applicability across Western contexts in understanding normative family structures and parenting practices. By focusing on expectations about and the reality of new parenthood, the book explicates how institutionalized norms about parenthood are internalized and explores what this can tell us about the broader contours of parenthood discourses.

Introduction:
First-time parenting experiences for heterosexual couples are frequently treated as the unmarked norm in research on reproduction. This treatment overlooks the diverse and complex experiences of new parents, particularly those who identify as heterosexual. First-Time Parenting Journeys aims to address this gap by providing a critical analysis of how social norms about parenthood shape, regulate, and potentially limit the experiences of new parents, while also exploring what it means to be situated within the norm.

Methodology:
The book is based on qualitative longitudinal research, which involves conducting in-depth interviews with heterosexual first-time parents over an extended period of time. The interviews were designed to explore the participants' experiences of becoming parents, their perceptions of social norms about parenthood, and the ways in which these norms influenced their parenting practices.

Findings:
The findings of the research revealed that heterosexual first-time parents are often treated as the unmarked norm within research on reproduction. This treatment overlooks the diverse and complex experiences of new parents, particularly those who identify as heterosexual. The participants in the study reported a range of challenges and joys in their parenting journeys, including feelings of uncertainty, exhaustion, and joy. They also discussed the impact of social norms about parenthood on their experiences, such as expectations about gender roles, parental responsibilities, and the balance between work and family.

Conclusion:
First-Time Parenting Journeys provides a valuable contribution to the literature on reproduction by challenging the notion that heterosexual first-time parents are the unmarked norm. The book offers a critical analysis of how social norms about parenthood shape, regulate, and potentially limit the experiences of new parents, while also exploring what it means to be situated within the norm. By focusing on the experiences of heterosexual first-time parents, the book provides a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of new parenthood and the role that social norms play in shaping it.

Weight: 474g
Dimension: 158 x 236 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781316513989