SERVED BY THE CHILDREN: THE SPATIALIZATION OF CHILDREN'S HOUSEWORK IN HAREDI SOCIETY IN ISRAEL

A focus on children’s housework, concerning where and by whom specific chores are performed, how they are viewed and interpreted, and the types of entitlements they entail, shows the significance of space for the way housework is conducted in society. Insights obtained from Haredi (Jewish Ultra-Orthodox) informants of three groups explicate how representations of children performing housework are understood: first, employed mothers evaluated children’s housework from within the family; second, adult bystanders interpreted their observations of children performing housework outside the home; third, children performing housework outside the home conveyed their own experience of it. Findings indicate that children forthrightly defined their activity as work, but local knowledge imparted by adults identified it as learning and that children and the housework they do were supervised by unfamiliar adults. Spatial analysis revealed adults’ dependence on children’s housework, which partially reverses the ordinary adult-child hierarchy.