‘I’m so much more myself now, coming back to work’ - working class mothers, paid work and childcare.

If she can go to - not just with other kids, but if she could get used to lots of
different adults that’s going to be easier in the long run when she goes to
school, when it comes to babysitting, when I take her anywhere [...] She’s
always been interested in everything that’s going on and never been frightened
of anything. [] And I think going to the nursery’s got - I know she was
alright before but I think that just reinforces it. (Ruth, one child, white UK,
married, ft administrator, baby started ft nursery at five months)

This endorsement of group and nursery settings is markedly different from the views
of the middle class families of the earlier study who commonly used nurseries for
children aged three to five in the immediate pre-school period, but who generally
preferred home-based (nanny or childminder) care for their under-threes, fearing
emotional neglect in more institutional environments (Vincent & Ball 2006). By
contrast, it is fear of physical neglect or even abuse that working class mothers
worried about with regards to ‘strangers’ looking after their children in private homes
(Vincent et al. 2008b). The working class families preferred care arrangements that
were as straightforward and geographically close as possible and tended to stay with
these arrangements. In the middle class families, children often went to a range of
different care/activity settings in the course of a week and arrangements were
constantly reviewed and adjusted according to children’s age and perceived abilities.

Several of the working class mothers we interviewed emphasised that nursery offered
their children a range of activities and access to resources that they could not provide
at home. Claudette below describes how her daughter would be at a disadvantage if
she were at home with her full-time:

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