Chauffeuring parenthood: The everyday travel times of families

Abstract

The time parents dedicate to the routine transport of their children has increased significantly since the second half of the twentieth century. This change was triggered by various developments, including new forms of parenthood, the central place the car has come to occupy in society and the tendency to urban dispersion. The article addresses the coordination efforts made by families to provide transport for their children to and from schools, nurseries or extracurricular activities. It focuses on the meaning parents attribute to the time spent on this transport, and on gender differences in this type of time allocation. To illustrate this point, analyses have been made of qualitative and quantitative data obtained in the context of a research on the use of time and technology in families, in the Portuguese districts of Castelo Branco and Braga, during the period 2010–12. The principal revelations of this research are the diversities but also general trends in representations and practices regarding temporalities and transport shown in interviews and focus group discussions. It was found that parents interviewed considered time devoted to routine transport of their children a care task; and, linked to this, mothers bore the brunt of this fragmented and time-consuming activity.