Publication: Toy consumption - International Journal of Consumer Studies

Title

Playing with class: Middle‐class intensive mothering and the consumption of children's toys in Vietnam

Authors

• Khanh Le‐Phuong Nguyen

• Vicki Harman

• Benedetta Cappellini

Abstract

This article explores the way in which Vietnamese mothers purchase, gift and share toys with their children. The study utilises a qualitative design comprising semi‐structured interviews with 10 Vietnamese middle‐class professional working mothers of children aged between 5 and 9. This research highlights the way in which toys defined as “good” by mothers need to fulfil a number of important practical and social functions: they act as an investment in the child's future, as a reward, and as a means for mothers to buy time for themselves. The findings illustrate how these functions are influenced by Confucian and Western discourses of intensive mothering, generating a localized style of middle‐class intensive mothering, characterized by what we have called the ideal of the triple excellent and intensive mother.

First published: 28 February 2017

https://doi-org.lbs.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/ijcs.12349

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