In addition John. When media caught hold of the human interest potential of
the phenomena: 'young carers' in Australia, one particular boy was
subjected the gaze of the cameras. Someone who was there at the time said
it was awful for the boy. The last thing he wanted was to be made to feel
different. He felt very uncomfortable with his tragedisation/heroisation
and felt such publicity would focus unwanted attention on him in the
community in which he lived. He did not anticipate the type of angle media
may have taken. This is a young boy too - his level of sensitivity toward
what was happening to him was in some ways surprising but then again,
perhaps it shouldn't be surprising.
I had an Honours student who was looking into leisure opportunities for
children who are "primary carers" for an adult with a disability in their
home. She interviewed a number of children. Unfortunately the thesis was
never written up but I do recall that the children found not much "ado"
with what they were doing, handled things well and did not have an acute
sense of loss (of leisure or play). Often it was financial restrictions and
mobility that caused most constraint. I acknowledge that children must
have opportunities to socialise and participate (in their community) for
their own personal development and that this may require some support. I
acknowledge one's own space is very important however, if we were looking
at many non-western countries, there would be no phenomena - children look
after parents regardless.
At 11:26 AM 6/02/2001 +0000, John M Davis wrote:
>(Please note that the implied criticism included
>in this email is does not relate to any
>comments made on the mail base but is aimed at
>accademic work elsewhere which overlooks
>children's capacities to act as social agents.)
>
>The discourses surrounding this topic are
>discussed in a paper by Jane Stables and Fiona
>Smith (1999) 'Caught in the Cinderella trap?:
>Narratives of disabled parents and young carers,
>in Butler, R and Parr, H (eds) Mind and Body
>spaces: geographies of illness, impairment and
>disability. Routledge
>
>
>The authors are critical of the way both disabled
>parents and young carers are respresented as
>passive and tradgic figures in media potraits of
>the issue and conclude, The Cindarella tale is
>yet another fictional steriotyping of disabled
>people, adding to their marginalisation in
>society.
>
>
> From my own childhood studies perspective, like
>these authors I would challenge the homogenised
>version of an ideal childhood that is held in
>media discourses about young carers becasue they
>only highlight the negative affects of the role
>(I think weve been here before with the role of
>women and mothers and the down playing of
>unpaid work). Some young carers will have very
>positive stories to tell about their
>relationships with their parents others will
>have difficulties and may wish to alter things in
>there lives - best option is to ask them what
>their opinion is and not assume we as adults know
>whats best for them.
>
>A further issue which has come out in a project
>I'm working on at the moment in Scotland on young
>peoples perspectives of the relationship between
>poverty and health is that all children adopt
>caring roles towards their parents at different
>times and for different reasons, hence, the
>assumption that 'normal' childhood does not
>involve caring roles down playes the fluid nature
>of adult child relationships and is a shift back
>into the socialisation top down debates of
>previous decades
>
>cheers
>John
>Dr John M Davis
>Research Unit in Health and Behavioural Change
>The University of Edinburgh
>Medical School
>Teviot Place
>Edinburgh
>EH8 9AG
>
>tele 0131 651 1206
>fax 0131 650 6902
>email [log in to unmask]
>
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