Paper short abstract:

Starting out in dominant discourses about weak Swedish parenting, accompanied by alarming reports about increasing mental ill-health among Swedish children, this paper aims to illustrate how teacher discourses are shaped and transformed into every-day socialisation practice.

Paper long abstract:

During fieldwork in two Swedish schools (1999-2002) I often heard teachers referring to school as "the reality" where they had to tamper with the consequences of the weak parenting performed by parents "today". Parents were described by teachers as being "afraid of growing up" and lacking time for their children. This was accompanied by alarming reports in media on increasing "mental [i.e psychological] ill-health" among Swedish children and the publishing of books about "curling parents" (labelling parents of "today" as overprotecting their children) and about Swedish society as "The infantile society" (referring to the idea that parents of today are as childish and self-centred as their children and teenagers).

The dominant discourse about "parents today" points to the matter of fact that when parents are unable to "see" their children and their needs, someone else has to do it in their place.

This vocation is an important factor when socialisation responsibilities are identified by teachers and communicated to parents. In this way the dominant discourse shapes ideas about teacher professionalism and what aspects of up-bringing should be attended to in every day school life. In this paper I will present some of the ways in which the ideas about the alarming state of Swedish childhood and family life reproduced themselves in different arenas in society and in teacher discourses and how they are transformed into every-day-practice.