Motherhood, Absence and Transition

The vast majority of academic texts on motherhood have focused on women’s experiences of the early years of mothering, while texts covering the topic of home-leaving have tended to privilege the young person''s experience. Combining lively empirical material with an illuminating social-theoretical framework, Trish Green''s book addresses the much neglected area of the mother''s experience of separation from her child at the time of their home-leaving. The book makes clear how the mother''s experience of separation is silenced, first by the socio-cultural constructions of motherhood per se, second by the privileging of the child''s transition to adulthood, and third by a neglect of the relational dimension of this particular life-course transition. In doing so the book makes an important contribution to debates on ageing, identity and the life-course, and will be of great interest to sociologists with various academic interests.

The vast majority of academic texts on motherhood have focused on women’s experiences of the early years of mothering, while texts covering the topic of home-leaving have tended to privilege the young person''s experience. Combining lively empirical material with an illuminating social-theoretical framework, Trish Green''s book addresses the much neglected area of the mother''s experience of separation from her child at the time of their home-leaving. The book makes clear how the mother''s experience of separation is silenced, first by the socio-cultural constructions of motherhood per se, second by the privileging of the child''s transition to adulthood, and third by a neglect of the relational dimension of this particular life-course transition. In doing so the book makes an important contribution to debates on ageing, identity and the life-course, and will be of great interest to sociologists with various academic interests.