Outsourcing Child Care to Nannies Agency A New Way of Dealing with Work-Life Balance Issues
Type de matériel :
24
The use of a service provider is often motivated by the need to delegate part of the tasks falling upon us. Taking the example of afterschool care, this article shows that using service providers means less a decrease in domestic and parental work than its transformation. Highly subsidszed by the government since the 1990s, these agencies appear to be a new way of thinking work-life balance for middle and upper classes working parents. While domestic and parental work is still largely assigned to mothers, those who work use the services of agencies when they cannot appeal to family solidarity. It is both a way of delegating afterschool care and managing domestic workers, and of ensuring it is in accordance with their family educational values. Based on observations made in the agency and interviews with parents-clients, workers and agency managers, this article shows that active mothers see their mental and managing burden increase since they supervise and organise this service.
Réseaux sociaux