An Oral History of Young Families in the Covid-19 Pandemic Rainbows in the Windows

Abstract

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of young families in Britain in an unprecedented way. Lockdown has fundamentally affected the everyday lives of parents and children. This book analyses oral history interviews undertaken to develop an understanding of how parents of young children navigated the lockdown and its immediate aftermath, including changes to their working patterns, social activities, and children’s education, and the impact on their physical and mental health. This study represented a unique opportunity to collect oral testimony from a key population group at this important juncture in history and explore this testimony in the context of British cultural and social history and in relation to literature on employment, health and the emotions.
This book documents, via oral history, experiences of the emotions of parenthood during the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on testimonies collected during a time of crisis and exploring how parents' feelings and reflections shifted and changed with the passage of time at an important and unique juncture in history. The broad aim of the book, divided into seven chapters as outlined, is to analyse the effects of the restrictions imposed on the British population as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic on the lives of parents with young children (of primary age and below), with a particular focus on the emotional impact of the time period. Key topics and themes discussed include parents' experiences of pregnancy and birth, education and childcare, work, leisure, and health during the pandemic.

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The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025

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Identifiers

DOI

10.1007/978-3-032-09000-3

Repository URI

https://pure.uhi.ac.uk/en/publications/c61b5c40-1800-45fd-88b6-3fb196baf7cf