Faltering care: why mothers experiencing homelessness in Dublin, Ireland, miss their childcare visits.

Abstract

This paper takes as its focus the caregiving efforts of a group of mothers in Dublin who were homeless, struggling with addiction, and separated from their children. It explores their ongoing orientation towards their distant children, in terms of their affective longings, practical actions, and moments of faltering, for despite yearning for an ongoing role in their children's lives, many of my interlocutors struggled to maintain a consistent caregiving engagement. The paper argues that the halting nature of my interlocutors' caring efforts does not preclude the sincerity of their affective concerns for their children, and that if we only judge care based on practical action and output, we overlook the tough realities of caregiving on the ground. Moreover, appreciating this fluctuating pattern of caregiving is necessary to understanding my interlocutors' oscillating trajectories through homelessness and substance use, and how these trajectories were shaped by their vacillating relationship with hope. This paper thus introduces the concept 'faltering care': care which encompasses conjoined moments of lapsed practical action and sustained affective concern, but which nonetheless reflects the care provider's hopeful reach towards leading a moral life.