ABSTRACT
Since, normatively speaking, parents’ job is to care for children rather than the other way round, it is crucial that we examine children’s
expectations and rationalities for helping (or not) in relation to their parents’ (that is, mothers’) expectations. In order to understand the parameters under which children engage in caring, we have focused upon a critical instance of care, whereby the expectation that children contribute to family life might be said to overstep the mark. By asking the question whether parents should discuss their problems with children – a question put to children and mothers alike – we hoped to be able to generate reflexive accounts about what it means to care and to be a child. Thereby we hoped to illuminate not only issues of reciprocity within households and families but also how the construction of children as carers illuminates the meaning of childhood itself.
