Mother-Blame in the Prozac Nation

Abstract

Based on in-depth interviews and fieldwork, this article examines mothers raising kids with invisible, social/emotional/behavioral disabilities to refine feminist theories of mother-blame. The mother-valor/mother-blame binary holds mothers responsible for families and future citizens, maintaining this “natural” care at the center of normative femininity. The author explores how mothers raising such burdensome children understand their experiences and makes three arguments: (1) Fewer mothers are blamed for causing their child's troubles in an era of “brain-blame,” but more are blamed as proximate causes if they do not make unrelenting efforts, paralleling “concerted cultivation,” to resolve them; (2) such mothers often exceed concerted cultivation, as they seize authority, as vigilantes, within educational and medical systems in the midst of turf wars, cost containment, and a resulting proliferation of medication treatments; and (3) this maternal speedup holds mothers accountable for feminizing ties to sons, for policing gender boundaries while policing their own feminine care. In sum, mothers raising invisibly disabled kids may represent the model of maternal valor for an era of public stinginess and extensive medicalization.

A Case Review: Reframing School-Based Practices Using a Critical Perspective

“…They often feel they must avoid backstage murmurings as they come in for meetings, be perceived as helpful and engaged but not as "a squeaky wheel." These experiences contribute to parental stress (Blum, 2012;Deatrick, Knafl, & Walsh, 1988;Innocenti, Huh, & Boyce, 1992;McKeever & Miller, 2004;Smith, Oliver, & Innocenti, 2001). If we begin to accept parents as members of the team with a voice to be heard we must become aware of our own power as therapists and professionals.…”

Time Spent with Children and Working Parents' Willingness to Medicate ADHD-like Behaviors

“…Difficulties of parents of ADHD children as they attempt to determine their child's "normal status" (Kendall, 1999), battle with the health care and education system (Blum, 2007), decide on the best working treatment for their children (Taylor, O'Donoghue, &Houghton, 2006), or struggle with the trial and error phase of medications (Dennis, Davis, Johnson, Brooks, & Humbl, 2008), are well documented in the literature. What is not apparent, however, is the amount of time these parents generally spend with their children, or the amount of time they need to make a decision on medicating or not medicating ADHD-like behaviors of their children.…”

“…They also develop and provide treatments for parents of ADHD children but information on such treatments is rarely present in the social work literature (McCleary, 2002). The position of school social workers allows them to provide crucial help to parents of ADHD children who seem to experience some feelings of animosity toward the education and the healthcare system Blum, 2007), and above all, are uncertain as to what is the best approach to their child's problem. Having extensive expertise in child welfare, health, and mental health setting (Azzi-Lessing, 2010), social workers are capable to administer different types of trainings for parents of ADHD children (McCleary, 2002), but such trainings are usually conducted by other professionals and not by social workers (Thomas & Corcoran, 2003).…”

“…Although the ADHD construct is commonly treated as representing a valid disorder or psychopathological entity in the fields of psychiatry, pediatrics, psychology, and education, critiques from within each of these fields and others have contested its validity since its inception (review by Timimi & Leo, 2009) The language employed to define the controversial diagnosis of ADHD variously includes "problem," "condition," "disorder," "disability," and "illness" or "disease" (e.g. Arcia et al, 2004;Charach et al, 2006;Blum, 2007). Occasionally, it includes less negatively loaded terms such as "individual difference" (Carpenter & Austin, 2007), "behavioral difference" (Jacobson, 2006) or "evolutionary advantage" (Armstrong, 2006).…”

“…In fact, it is typically up to the parents' judgment of their child's behavior to follow up with a professional to seek a diagnosis (Arcia & Fernández, 2003;Bussing & Gary, 2001;Hansen & Hansen, 2006), usually initiated by the child's teacher because of the child's poor academic performance (Blum, 2007;Leslie et al, 2007). It is unclear when and how the relationship between the frequency of problem behaviors and poor academic performance is established, but it seems that once this relation is perceived as accurate, usually initiated by teachers (Malacrida, 2001), the door to a diagnosis of ADHD becomes a strong possibility and parents consider seeking a professional Perry et al, 2008).…”