How You Should Spend Your Summer Vacation: Parenting Advice Regarding Children’s Time in Summer, 1985-2013

• In Event: 352 - Section on Children and Youth Paper Session. Children's Time Use: Theory and Application

Abstract

How are parents advised to manage their children’s time? As children’s summer activities may influence their long-term academic success, the question of how children spend their time during July and August is an important one. This study seeks to explore the social context of parenting with respect to children’s time use in summer. What advice are parents given, with respect to how children’s time should be spent in the summer? How are parents urged to manage or oversee their children’s time during the summer? What summer routines, habits and activities are promoted by parenting magazines? While parenting magazine data do not answer the question of how children actually spend time, they approximate mainstream notions of what constitutes good parenting. I analyze 144 Canadian parenting magazine articles on the topic of children’s time in the summer, published between 1985 and 2013. Articles endorse middle-class childrearing, with parents urged to research and plan ahead to ensure their children have a productive summer. Summer is construed as a risky time; summer is depicted as a threat to both children’s safety and their academic prowess. Advice magazine articles prompt parents to ensure that they not only manage their children’s slate of activities and whereabouts, but their emotional state as well. Summer is characterized as a significant time requiring much advance planning and research it make it a successful time for children who need considerable supervision.

Author

• Linda Quirke, Wilfrid Laurier University