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The term “shift” in studies of work and family life refers to the organization of time and tasks in families with at least one parent in paid employment. The logic of this being that families, like factories, have to keep up the “production” line without interruptions and pauses, and since parents, like factory workers, can’t stand in the production line 24/7 they work shifts. In the literature the first shift then refers to paid work, and the second shift to un-paid, domestic work. The third shift is more subtle and even invisible and concerns the (un-paid) emotional and “administrative” work being done by parents (and in hetero couples, mostly by mothers) behind the scenes in order to meet expectations, standards and norms pertaining to childhood and family life.
At the seminar I will present some findings from studies of the shift work in Norwegian families in a welfare state context in relation to theories of “intensive parenthood” and “the long arm of the job” (Aaronsson et al. 2019) versus “the long arm of the home” (Ericsson et al 2020). I will then continue to explore what we call the fourth shift, which refers to the administrative care work grown up children do for their parents. I will present some findings concerning this shift also, and how it represents an emerging challenge as the population in Norway is getting older and in the light of the digitalization of the Norwegian society and welfare state service production.
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