»You're never really ready for parenthood«: Trends and dilemmas of of contemporary family life and parenting

Abstract

This article is about the dilemmas of modern family life and parenting.  In modern times, the basic rules on which people base their privacy have fundamentally changed. The forms of family life have pluralised. In addition to biological parenthood, various forms of social parenthood are increasingly gaining ground. In particular, young people are moving into partnership and parenthood in very differentiated ways. In this changed situation of family life, children are increasingly becoming a project that needs careful supervision, constant monitoring of developmental stages and guidance. To empirically test how parents cope with these new problems, we interviewed parents in the first phase of parenthood in two focus groups about their parenting experiences. We found that the trend towards responsible parenthood brings with it tensions between three important aspects of life: the areas of paid work and career advancement, and the areas of partnership and childcare. We have also found that the problem of more active fatherhood and equal participation of both parents is not only a problem of men‘s willingness and ability to be active fathers, but also of the prevailing culture.