Parenting on the Edge: Doing Good Parenthood in Child Protection Services Interventions

Abstract

This chapter presents an analysis of parents’ perspectives on good parenthood when subject to interventions from the Danish Child Protection Services. It is based on a qualitative, empirical data. The aim is to explore how parents process instructions from professionals regarding, for example, their child’s health and daily routines, and what such instructions mean to parents in their daily lives. The professionals’ instructions are analysed as intertwined with the complex everyday life of the children and parents. Parenthood is conceptualised as a social practice, embedded in societal structures. This means that it is the daily parental activities in the home and daily tasks in relation to supporting children’s participation in other life contexts (e.g. day care) that are explored and analysed.