Minding the Time in Family Experience: Emerging Perspectives and Issues

We are directed to "mind the time" on occasions when diligence to the clock is important. However, to deliberately invoke "mind your time" is to remember how quickly time, and the clock which serves as its agent, can so quickly recede into the mundane and taken for granted parts of our lives. The experience of time in families can both permeate all activities but nevertheless be hidden. The papers in this volume, representing a range of disciplines (history, sociology, psychology, family therapy, leisure studies, family science) intentionally foreground the way that time shapes everyday family worlds. Each chapter offers different insights into the way that we conceptualize time including analyses of pace, rhythm, negotiation, politics, timetables, schedules, social interaction and support. The meaning of time is illustrated through analyses of a variety of family issues including father involvement, infertility, work and family, mothering and care work, housework, family time, single parent families, family life education and gender.