‘Everybody’s Always Here with Me!’

Social distancing has been the central public health strategy for tackling the coronavirus pandemic worldwide But the 'Stay Home, Stay Safe' order in the United Kingdom and the consequent closure of nurseries and schools also created an unprecedented degree of proximity within households Based on interviews with mothers of young children in Scotland, this article provides early insight into the ways that mothers manage the forced intimacies of family life under lockdown and the opportunities they create through the innovative management of space and time The result is a more expansive understanding of the family in contemporary Scotland and a notion of intimacy characterised as much by the necessity of distance and distinction as by proximity and mutuality [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Anthropology in Action is the property of Berghahn Books and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )