Re-entering Leisure: Transition Within the Role of Motherhood

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between leisure and motherhood from life course/life span and family life stage perspectives. Personal interviews conducted with a purposive sample of fifty-three mothers reaching the end of active mothering were analyzed by a constant comparison process. After analyses of the interviews were completed, four major themes emerged from the data related to the leisure of mothers in this sample. These four themes related to: (a) the way in which leisure was described by the women as a focus on self, (b) a concept of "full circle" leisure that was similar to a suspension of career while the children were dependent, (c) the limitations imposed on mothers due to socialized gender roles, and (d) the dichotomous influence of the ethic of care on the women's leisure.