劳累、拉扯与孤单:“老漂”母亲的母职实践及回应

Tiredness,Struggle and Loneliness:Motherhood and Response of“Laopiao”Mothers,Those Who Are Migrant Caregivers

母职是女性主义研究的经典议题,主要探讨社会文化规范下母亲的孩童抚育行为。本研究以"老漂"母亲为研究对象,探讨其照料子女及孙辈的母职体验,发现"老漂"母亲的母职实践呈现出劳累、拉扯与孤单的状态。她们承担着双重的母职照料责任,承受着身体的劳累,面临原有照料经验与现代科学及中产阶层育儿话语的拉扯,同时社会交往的匮乏、未来与子女及孙辈因地域分离而可能导致的情感联结减弱也使她们感到焦虑与孤单。这一母职实践的背后体现了"老漂"母亲面临着母职意识形态的内化、社会婴幼儿照料体系缺失等多层次的结构性约束,同时她们也在育儿方法调适、代际关系处理方面发挥着一定的主体性,母职在她们身上呈现出束缚与掌控并存的状态。

Motherhood is a consistent feminist concern that is focused on mothers’conducts of childrearing under the rubric of social and cultural norms.This study focuses on"Laopiao"mothers who are migrants and their experience with caring for her children and grandchildren,and recognizes that these mothers tend to live a life with tiredness,struggle and loneliness.When becoming conscientious migrant caregivers,they have taken up a dual role as a maternal caregiver imposing on them physical strains.They are faced with a challenge between their original experience with caregiving to their own children and the parenting discourse popular in modern science among the middle class.They feel anxious due to their isolation from social support and their weakened emotional connection with their children and grandchildren because of geographical distance.They engage in motherhood practice under multi-level structural constraints,including the internalization of traditional mothers’ideology and the lack of social system for infant care.At the same time,they uphold a certain level of subjectivity in their adjustment of parenting methods and the handling of intergenerational relationships.Their state of motherhood is overall a coexistence of external constraint and their sphere of control.