Home Is Where the School Is: The Logic of Homeschooling and the Emotional Labor of Mothering

by Jennifer Lois

Overview

Explores the experiences of homeschooling mothers

Mothers who homeschool their children constantly face judgmental questions about their choices, and yet the homeschooling movement continues to grow with an estimated 1.5 million American children now schooled at home. These children are largely taught by stay-at-home mothers who find that they must tightly manage their daily schedules to avoid burnout and maximize their relationships with their children, and that they must sustain a desire to sacrifice their independent selves for many years in order to savor the experience of motherhood. Home Is Where the School Is is the first comprehensive look into the lives of homeschooling mothers. Drawing on rich data collected through eight years of fieldwork and dozens of in-depth interviews, Jennifer Lois examines the intense effects of the emotional and temporal demands that homeschooling places on mothers’ lives, raising profound questions about the expectations of modern motherhood and the limits of parenting.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814752524
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	12/17/2012
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	239
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jennifer Lois is Associate Professor of Sociology at Western Washington University.

Table of Contents

1. Homeschooling Mothers
Part I . The Emotional Culture o f Good Mothering
2. Coming to a Decision: First- and Second-Choice Homeschoolers
3. Defending Good-Mother Identities: The Homeschooling Stigma
Part I I . The Temp oral - Emotional Conf l ict
• f Good Mothering
4. Adding the Teacher Role: Domestic Labor and Burnout
5. Losing Me-Time: The Temporal Emotion Work of Motherhood
Part I I I . Home schoo l ing Motherhood over Time
6. Looking Back: The Homeschooling Journey
7. Taking Stock of the Present: Perceptions of Success
8. Looking Forward: Empty Desks, Empty Nests
9. Savoring Motherhood

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Jennifer Lois’s compelling and informative ethnography about parents who decide to homeschool their children comes at a propitious time in American education. A fascinating read into these parents’ motivations, rationales, choices, time allocation, and philosophies.”-Peter Adler,co-author of The Tender Cut

“Lois’s patient ethnography at once sensitively reveals the complicated emotional and time-bound processes that forge the maternal self and motherhood as gendered social institution par excellence. This is an honest story of self-sacrifice and entitlement that not only tells the complicated truth of homeschooling, but more broadly highlights what’s at stake for mothers everywhere.”-Chris Bobel,author of The Paradox of Natural Mothering

Editorial Reviews

"A welcome addition to a growing literature on emotion work, culture, and parenting across social class and in other child-care arrangements. Terrific for sociology, culture, or women's studies collections."

CHOICE

"One of the most significant analyses of homeschooling and the role homeschooling mothers play in this practice to date...this book is excellent; it is necessary reading for scholars interested in understanding both homeschooling and the sociology of mothering. If there is a problem with the book, it is that it wasn't written sooner."

American Journal of Sociology - Gary Wyatt

"[H]er book opens a wide window onto the lives of homeschooling mothers.-"

Intensive Mothering - Rachel Tabachnick

"Theoretically rich and empirically fascinating."

Sociology of Religion

"One of the most significant analyses of homeschooling and the role homeschooling mothers play in this practice to date...this book is excellent; it is necessary reading for scholars interested in understanding both homeschooling and the sociology of mothering. If there is a problem with the book, it is that it wasn't written sooner."

Gary Wyattn Journal of Sociology

Jennifer Lois’s compelling and informative ethnography about parents who decide to homeschool their children comes at a propitious time in American education. A fascinating read into these parents’ motivations, rationales, choices, time allocation, and philosophies.”-Peter Adler,co-author of The Tender Cut

"A welcome addition to a growing literature on emotion work, culture, and parenting across social class and in other child-care arrangements. Terrific for sociology, culture, or women's studies collections."- CHOICE

From the Publisher