Labour after labour: negotiating caring for children and paid work

The lives of working parents are shaped by international and national trends including women’s increased participation in the workforce, unrealistic expectations about parenting, especially mothering, and the stripping away of state support from families. Yet Australian parents are likely to view the predicament of combining childcare and paid work as an individual choice rather than a collective responsibility. This chapter examines the history and politics of working parenthood and how these inform parenthood in twenty-first-century Australia. It considers the responses of individual mothers and fathers to their obligations and asks how they fit with history, generation, and the incomplete achievements of feminism. The chapter concludes that an individualised ethos of parenting exacts high costs from the mental health and relationships of parents in contemporary Australia.