Centre for Parenting Culture Studies

We were pleased to welcome Ellen Mertens earlier this year to introduce a seminar about her research. Her co-authored new paper here:

Negotiating breastfeeding information in everyday life: mothers’ engagement with momfluencer content This qualitative study investigates how breastfeeding mothers’ information practices unfold in relation to momfluencers’ breastfeeding content. Using Mckenzie’s everyday life information seeking mo...

Date for the diary

Tickets:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/engaging-intensive-motherhood-tickets-1997551865402?aff=oddtdtcreator

With comment from Prof Ellie Lee, sceptical of this latest attempt to justify criminalising parents through advocacy research

Smacking children could lead to lower GCSE grades, study suggests A University College London (UCL) study suggests that smacking children "does no good whatsoever".

We held our ECR Parenting Culture Studies Research Day at UCL almost a year ago, and heard from Rebecca Matthews' about her research adapting ideas about the intensification of motherhood to explore birth.

You can now read about the research here, in Social Science and Medicine:

www.sciencedirect.com

Ellie Lee joined the Beyond Gender podcast for this wide-raging discussion, covering the adoption of trauma discourse by the anti-abortion movement, the rise of mental health, the problem of pushing exclusive breastfeeding, and a lot about Diana Baumrind!

We Are Pathologising Ordinary Childhood Distress! In the latest Beyond Gender podcast episode, Mia Hughes & I spoke with Ellie Lee, Professor of Family & Parenting Research at University of Kent & Director of the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies

Thought-provoking take on 'it takes a village'; has this become the opposite of what it should be and yet another instruction to mothers about how they should 'parent'?

Inc comment from Prof Charlotte Faircloth

Telling new mothers to build a village just gives them something else to fail at As new research shows that one in 10 parents have no support network, Charlotte Cripps isn’t surprised. The idea of community and cooperation when it comes to parenting is all very well, but feeling alone is often the harsh reality

From back in March, during the meningitis outbreak; an interview with Ellie Lee on the issues raised by the shadow of lockdown

TalkTV 34 likes, 26 comments. "Meningitis Outbreak Latest: Two Dead and 20 Cases Being Investigated"

Article about gentle parenting, with comment from Ellie Lee

The end of gentle parenting? Why experts think children need to be told ‘no’ As more parents than ever complain that schools are all too strict, Charlotte Cripps talks to authors and professors, many of whom think the problem isn’t in the schools – it’s that there aren’t enough rules at home

Catch up with our most recent discussion, 'Navigating motherhood online: understanding the role of momfluencers in the infant feeding journey of first-time mothers', introduced by Ellen Mertens (Ghent University)

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The recent outbreak of meningitis placed the home of CPCS at the University of Kent, and our local town Faversham, in the middle of a health crisis and a media storm. Some thoughts from Jennie Bristow

Meningitis and the dangers of media contagion Journalists are playing a dangerous role in the East Kent meningitis outbreak.