ABSTRACT
This chapter approaches fathering from the perspective of leisure studies to examine how the relationships that fathers have with their family in leisure contexts are reflected in their leisure and sport repertoires and identities. Family-based leisure relationships are one significant mode through which fathers express connectedness with their children. This chapter builds on feminist studies of gendered leisure relations in families, and rejects approaches that conflate mothers’ and fathers’ experiences and meanings of family leisure into that of ‘parents’. In contrast it focuses on fathers’ gendered experience of family leisure to further our understanding of what ‘playing’ with children means in relation to the identity construction of fatherhood. It considers the nexus between fathers’ own leisure and sport repertoires, their understanding of their children’s identities and leisure needs, and their involvement in shared family leisure and their children’s leisure and sport activities.
