Kathrin Wicker Alltagsmanagement in Familienhaushalten

About this book

Life in the rush hour of life, shaped by starting a family, caregiving responsibilities, career orientation, and limited resources, confronts family households with complex challenges. How do parents succeed in reconciling everyday life, care work and paid employment, and their personal needs? What strategies do families develop to manage this daily balancing act, and which values, routines, and structures support them in doing so?

This qualitative research study sheds light on the lived reality of family households, showing how new forms of everyday management emerge in the tension between individual aspirations, social expectations, and structural conditions. Based on qualitative guided interviews, the study examines family households in the phase of starting a family: How do household styles and role allocations change when partnership become parenthood? Why does a frequently traditional and gendered division of paid work and care work persist despite the desire for an egalitarian division of labour? And what information and support do families need in their social environment in order to shape their life plans independently?

The author combines theoretical approaches to household-related action and the organisation of everyday life with empirical findings from practice. In this way, key aspects such as value orientations, resource management, role expectations, and future perspectives become visible. The study illustrates how families organise their everyday lives between needs, responsibility, self-realisation, and societal conditions, and what local social support they require in order to implement their life models on an equal and sustainable basis. At the same time, it outlines approaches for a future-oriented family policy: How can a low-threshold and needs-based support infrastructure be designed that provides effective relief for families, promotes gender equality, and strengthens equal opportunities?