Responsibility at a distance: parents’ accounts of their children’s unaccompanied travelling

Abstract

Young children’s movement in public places outside adult supervision tends to be regarded as problematic and may be met with scepticism. This study builds on interviews with parents in Norway whose children (age 5–11) have travelled by public transport without an adult caregiver. Using a discursive approach, the focus is on parenting and how parents account for their children’s travelling. The analysis examines the discursive resources parents use to build credible accounts and thereby manage issues of facticity as well as expectations of parental responsibility. By accounting for how they work to ensure that their children can cope with the journeys, the parents position themselves as responsible also while they are physically distant from their children. The study contributes knowledge on the relation between parents, children and their mobility in public space through an investigation of the discursive construction of children’s unaccompanied travelling and responsible parenting.