ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what being a parent means in the families people studied and describes some of the resources available to parents. The women’s work-hours range from a few hours per week to full time. Preferences aside, many of the families are forced to combine a series of alternatives - care by each spouse in turn while the other was at work, hired babysitters, informal child-care exchanges, assistance from relatives if there are some nearby, and formal day care or nursery programs. Parents who adopt this pattern often feel that parents are always the best people to care for young children. The major cost to such parents is that they have little time together with the children and little time alone together. Attitudes and information about parenting come from many sources. Mothers and fathers in the families usually use their own parents as one of the standards by which to judge their own parenting.
