Extended family collaboration in childcare during the coronavirus disease-19 pandemic

Abstract

The coronavirus disease-19 pandemic and the accompanying public health restrictions have posed significant challenges to parents with dependent children. A rich body of literature has examined the problems encountered by parents and their gendered division of labour in childcare during the pandemic. However, little attention has been paid to their interactions and collaborations with extended family for childcare. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 43 urban parents in Shenzhen, China, I examine how parents mobilised childcare support from extended family during the pandemic, focusing on their collaboration with grandparents. Viewing parenting as a series of interactive and relational practices, I analyse how parents made new childcare arrangements and sought support from extended family to cope with work–childcare conflict and their ambivalence towards family collaboration in childcare during the pandemic. My findings highlight the significance of extended family collaboration for parents to overcome childcare challenges and reveal the embeddedness and relationality of parenting during the coronavirus disease-19 pandemic within extended family.