They're All My Children : Foster Mothering in America / Danielle Wozniak.
Wozniak, Danielle, author.
2001
HV881 .W68 2002
Available Online

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Title
They're All My Children : Foster Mothering in America / Danielle Wozniak.
Author
Wozniak, Danielle, author.
ISBN
9780814784761
DOI
https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814784761.001.0001
Published
New York, NY : : New York University Press, [2001]
Copyright
©2001
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource
Item Number
10.18574/nyu/9780814784761.001.0001 doi
Call Number
HV881 .W68 2002
Dewey Decimal Classification
362.73/3/0973
Summary
The first book on foster care written from foster mothers' perspectives, They're All My Children voices the often painful experiences of contemporary U.S. foster mothers as they struggle to mother and care-work in the face of exploitative social relations with the state. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research, Wozniak, herself a former foster mother and an anthropologist, presents and analyzes women's personal stories about fostering to reflect on the larger socio-cultural context of American family lifenamely, how we think about kinship, identity, and work. Foster mothers construct enduring kinship relationships with children, and often with the children's biological families. These relationships enhance children's chances to growth and thrive and in turn extend women's kin relationships into often distant and disparate communities. Wozniak also highlights the economic side of fostering to show how foster mothers are both mothers and workers; foster children are both providers and provided for, adored sentimental children and economic figures. Through in-depth interviews and participant observation, Wozniak argues that we have not gone far enough in understanding the experiences of these women whose life work lies outside the usual boundaries. Nor have child welfare gone far enough in revising the theories upon which child welfare policies are based. Foster mothers and their experiences challenge the patriarchal, nuclear family ideals upon which foster care programs are based, a challenge that They're All My Children takes forward.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)
In
New York University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
Available in Other Form
print 9780814793466
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Frontmatter
Contents
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction
2 Portrait of a Foster Mother (1) "They're All My Children, They're All My Family"
3 Mothers and Workers: Becoming a Foster Mother
4 "I'm Their Mother" Fostering, Motherhood, and the Construction of Kinship
5 Managing Difference, Coping with Delegitimation: Foster Mothers as Nonmothers
6 Mothering Work and the Art of Fostering
7 Familial Changes: Integrating Foster Children into the Foster Family
8 "They Picked Up the Baby and the Baby Was Gone" Mothering and Loss
9 Portrait of a Foster Mother (2) Motherhood, Loss, and Social Action
10 "I Wanna Make It through the Week"
11 Conclusion
Appendix: About This Study
Notes
References
Index
About the Author

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