Do mothers want professional carers to love their babies?

Abstract

This article reports an aspect of a life historical study which investigated the part that 'love' played in mothers' decision-making about returning to work and placing their babies in day care. The article begins with a brief discussion of the context, including 21st-century policies in England to encourage mothers to return to the workforce (DfES, 2004; HMT, 2009). This is followed by a critical overview of relevant literature exploring three key themes: an historical view of women in the workforce, Attachment Theory, and theorizing 'love' and 'care'. The life-historical methodology is discussed and justified and seven key themes are briefly identified and explained. The article then focuses specifically on the theme of 'love' using life-history interview data and key literature to discuss mothers' views on the importance of 'love', the saliency of 'love' in choosing childcare, and the notion of 'professional love'.

More than just a bracelet: the use of material symbolism to communicate love

“…Page (2011) argues in her work on early years substitute care that not only is it possible but necessary. She challenges the idea that love should be seen as non-professional or inappropriate, rather she argues that love, and with it the feelings, thoughts and actions of parents and substitute carers about what love might be or look like in the context of the nursery should be brought into the open.…”

The use of poetry in a spiral-patterned methodology for research about love in early childhood

“…However, there is also a gap in the research literature related to the topic of love in ECEC. While Page (2010Page ( , 2011Page ( , 2013 carried out research about love with mothers and Osgood (2010Osgood ( , 2011Osgood ( , 2012 carried out research about early years professionalism with practitioners, no researchers had previously sought early years practitioners' constructions of love in the context of their work in ECEC settings. This research sought to find out how practitioners construct love in ECEC.…”

“…This research draws on their metaphor. It proposes that early years practitioners bring their own cultural and familial understanding of love to their diverse work contexts and skillfully convert this into 'professional love' (Page, 2011(Page, , 2013. The work they do is highly complex.…”

Practitioners’ constructions of love in early childhood education and care

“…I was also interested in the emergence of love in more recent research about love (Goldstein, 1997, Noddings, 2007, Gerhardt, 2004, Page, 2011, 2013, particularly when policies and current research literature say so little about it. I was encouraged that the practitioners shared this perspective about the importance of love in ECEC.…”

“…The literature on the topic also reports on the importance of love. Children need to feel loved (Gerhardt, 2004, Murray, 2014, Manning-Morton and Thorp, 2015, practitioners feel love for children (Goldstein, 1997), parents want their children to be loved (Page, 2011(Page, , 2013, and love in non-familial contexts carries potential hazards (Piper and Smith, 2003, Sikes, 2008, 2009) and complexities (Page and Elfer, 2013). Fletcher (1958) noted over half a century ago that… Nursery school teachers love children.…”