En normal barndom?

This report is based on qualitative interviews with 26 parents in low-income families (below 60 percent of the median income). This is part of an ongoing longitudinal study called «Children's level of living - the impact of family economy for children's lives», a study that includes both quantitative and qualitative data. The results from the first quantitative study (Sandbæk 2004), indicate that low-income parents partly succeed in protecting their children from the effects of low income. This report analyses the parent's protective strategies. The parents' main aim is to give their children a normal childhood. In contemporary Norwegian childhood it is important to have access to both activities and consumer goods, and there are increasing cost connected to these. Children without access to these things risk being excluded from their peers. To prevent social exclusion of their children, the parents use a set of strategies, defined as material- and action-oriented strategies, aimed at reducing the material differences between their children and their peers. The parents prioritize the children's needs over their own, and when their own resources are insufficient, they seek support from other sources. There seems to be a hierarchy of actions, where the parents start with renouncing important needs in their own life. With a limited family economy, there are clear limitations in the extent to which children's wishes can be fulfilled, and the parents have to prioritize between the children's different needs. The children inherit clothes, toys and other goods from relatives and friends, the parents are buying reduced-price or second-hand to supply the children the things that are common among their peers. Most of the families have supportive networks. For ethnic Norwegians, grandparents are most important, while among ethnic minority families parents' siblings and friends provide most support. A few families lack these networks, and feel forced to borrow money, specially to pay for extra costs for school-activities. The families with the lowest income also seek support from the welfare services, and some children take part in funded activities. However, parents with low incomes are not able to cover all their children's needs. This is the basis for another set of strategies that acknowledge the differences, and give the children instruments to cope with this. I have called this pedagogical- and value-oriented strategies, aimed at giving their children alternative values more in tune with the family's economic circumstances. Here the children have to contribute to the family economy, to learn the cost of things, and to prioritize. The parents seek to find free or low-cost activities, and in some cases they redefine values in a non-material direction. Most of the parents inform the children about the financial situation, but they have to find a balance, not to upset the children. The combination of having very low means and a material orientation, as many ethnic minority families do, makes it difficult to protect the children. The parents feel they are failing, and many of the interviews are characterized by hopelessness. Where the pedagogical- and value-oriented strategies are explicit, there is more optimism, and we see both cognitive and problem-solving coping strategies in action. The parents become coping models for their children, and through this they reduce the pressure on the children, now and in the future. Finally the report presents a set of political implications. To reduce poverty, people must have sufficient income, from work or through the welfare-system. More parents were concerned with the advantage of universal measures; these are not stigmatizing and give the family the little extra they need to secure the children's needs. They also focused on culture and the costs of leisure activities. This leads to a conclusion that cultural and civil organizations must be aware of their responsibilitytoreach vulnerable groups, and the organizations must have a secure economic base to fulfil a function as arenas of inclusion for all children and adolescents