**Abstract**

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many parents, especially mothers, to juggle paid work and supervise home-schooled children for extended periods. While educators, mental health professionals, and the popular media often constructed this forced family time as a unique opportunity for "quality time," studies are increasingly recognizing its adverse effects on mothers' well-being. Integrating sociology of time theories with feminist criticism of the intensive mothering ideology, this chapter links idealized cultural representations of mother-child time to the dominant ideologies of "intensive mothering." According to these ideologies, mothers' time with children is irreplaceable and crucial for children's optimal development. Therefore, mothers should devote more and more time to their children's physical and mental needs. Based on content analysis of text data from parenting online advice columns, blogs written by mothers, and mothers' Facebook groups, this chapter examines whether and how notions of time and temporality create, maintain, and challenge intensive mothering ideologies during the pandemic.

**Keywords:** COVID-19, intensive mothering, quality time, time experiences

## **1. Introduction**

The outbreak of the COVID-19 resulted in significant changes in the lives of many families around the globe. School closure and social distance have taken a particular toll on parents who have had to navigate between family and work demands [1, 2]. Previous studies showed that parents experienced increased anxiety, stress, depression, and burnout resulting from the pandemic. M oreover, parental psychological distress was associated with parental neglect and the use of harsh discipline practices [3]. The adverse effects of the pandemic were exacerbated for women, as they are the ones who typically negotiate the double burden of paid work while simultaneously providing care for children, the sick, and the elderly [4].

Although empirical studies have consistently linked increased time at home with heightened levels of parental stress and conflict [5, 6], cultural representations of this forced family time portraited it as the desired situation and an opportunity for "quality time" [7]. These representations are rooted in the dominant ideology of "intensive mothering" [8, 9] that encourages mothers to devote more and more time to their children's physical and mental well-being.

Integrating sociology of time theories with feminist criticism of the intensive mothering ideology, this chapter examines whether and how notions of time and temporality create, maintain, and challenge intensive mothering ideologies during the pandemic.

#### **1.1 Mothering during a pandemic**

Women are on the frontline of coronavirus. Women compose not only the majority of the planet's healthcare and social care workers but also 75% of all of the world's unpaid work at home [10]. Recent studies documenting the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on parents' labor force participation showed that working mothers were disproportionately affected by the COVID-19, especially if they were single mothers, had a low socioeconomic status, or were affiliated with racial or ethnic minority groups [11, 12]. According to the U.S. Census Bureau data [13], 3.5 million mothers living with school-age children left active work during March and April 2020, either shifting into paid or unpaid leave, losing their job, or exiting the labor market altogether. Almost a year later, in January 2021 still, 1.6 million fewer mothers were working than in January 2020. The vulnerability of working mothers to the adverse effects of the pandemic was associated with their increased representation in service and other jobs heavily impacted by pandemic closures and the heavier burden of unpaid domestic household chores that disrupted their ability to work for pay [13]. Even the promising flexibility of homeworking that allows people to work "anytime and anyplace" poses a further obstacle in mothers' careers due to their reduced access to time and space resources [14]. While a similar number of men and women are now working from home, homeworking is four times more likely to damage a woman's career [15].

Research focusing on maternal experiences during the COVID-19 is still scarce. However, previous studies proposed that the increased time at home was one of the major difficulties of mothers during the pandemic [5, 6]. For example, Whiley et al. [5] found that mothers who have greatly increased their time caring for their children disproportionately reported increased stress, anxiety, and frustrations with their children. The negative impact of increased parenting time on mothers' well-being was intensified when disruptions in childcare arrangements were coupled with intensive work or intensive parenting pressures. However, other mothers have experienced increased parenting time as a source of joy in otherwise difficult times [6].

Importantly, these findings suggest that mothers' experiences of the time at home were deeply rooted in the cultural ideals of "perfect" mothering [16]. Intensive mothering ideologies, which became the dominant mothering discourses in the west [8], describe a model of motherhood that asks women to always give fully of themselves, physically, emotionally, psychologically, and intellectually. Mothers are also expected to approach motherhood joyfully while sacrificing themselves to the demands of motherhood [17, 18].

Concepts of time are central to the intensive mothering ideologies that underscore the irreplaceable nature of mothers' time for children's optimal development [19, 20]. According to this view, the proper development of children requires mothers lavishing large amounts of time and energy on offspring. As a result, mothers who ascribe to intensive mothering ideologies are more likely to experience higher levels of anxiety, guilt, and shame for not spending enough time with their children [21, 22].

The social construction of mothers' time as irreplaceable and crucial to children's well-being is even more pronounced during stressful situations, such as the *Exploring the Quality of "Quality Time": A Temporal View on Mothers' Experiences… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101174*

current pandemic. Clearly, the COVID-19 outbreak has forced parents, particularly mothers, to spend much more time caring for their children [23, 24]. However, cultural representations of the intensive mothering ideologies portraited the pandemic as an opportunity for "family time", compensating for the chronic time deficits reported by working mothers. Therefore, examining mothers' time notions during the pandemic offers a unique perspective on how practices of intensive mothering are produced and maintained.

#### **1.2 The current chapter**

Previous studies showed that notions of time govern, inform, and interpret social meanings [25, 26]. These studies showed that socio-temporal dimensions create and maintain hierarchical relations and constitute discursive positioning of different social categories, such as single persons [27], immigrants [28, 29], and the elderly [30]. Building on the key role of time and temporality in mothers' lives [31], the objective of the current study was to consider mothers' experiences during the pandemic in socio-temporal terms. Specifically, the study examines whether and how do notions of time and temporality create and maintain intensive mothering ideologies during the pandemic and whether they may also challenge them.
