‘The more you go to the mountains, the better parent you are’. Migrant parents in Norway navigating risk discourses in professional advice on family leisure and outdoor play

Abstract

Abstract Drawing on data from a study with Southern European parents living in Norway, this article discusses the experiences of migrant parents with professional advice on family leisure and outdoor play. The study is situated broadly in research about the contemporary parenting role and the social construction of parents as risk-managers. Within this construction, parents are understood as continually managing a ‘double-bind’, in which they are asked to both protect children from multiple risks, and expose them to risk to develop resilience. Norway provides an interesting context for further investigation, given its institutionalised emphasis on the importance of outdoor life and play. This is embedded in public provision for children and in dominant understandings of how families should use leisure time and how children should play. We explore how migrant parents respond to the associated discourses of risk in their encounters with kindergarten professionals and community health nurses. Participants navigated risk discourse in professional advice on family leisure and children’s outdoor play in three ways: contesting discourses of risk; feigning cooperation; and accepting professional intervention and advice in either collaborative or compliant relationships. Migrant parents experienced professional constructions of risk-management as implying a form of individual responsibility, which typically recognised risks to children’s wellbeing linked with their lifestyle choices. Although some found ways to negotiate risk and accommodate, parental experience was characterised by tension and difficulties in encountering the double-bind, which deserves further attention.