|
Marriage and child-delivery are considered a critical life milestone to the majority of the society. Many couples, right after marriage, face the dilemma between having or not having a child. To a part of couples, not having a child stems from the unfamilarity with the parenting life. Thus, four new Taiwanese parents who were born in 1980s and 1990s are selected as the subjects of this thesis. The study, with implementing group interview to address the change throughout the process of the first-time coparenting and a further discussion of their life experiences, attempts to reach a more detailed understanding of their life during pregnancy and parenting; then depicting new couple’s ethnography. This study shows that:
1.The folklore custom, such as doing the month, naming for children, the forms of parenting rituals and etc., comes with more flexibilty to the new parents in this generation. New couples, relatively, are not confined within the social tradition. 2.Depsite the increases of female power, the traditional concepts still underlie the general family. “The man is in charge of the outside, and the woman is in the house” is, in general, still mainstream social ideology. The two main reasons refers to the maximum of overall economic advantages and that women regard themselves, also in other’s eye, as the main family caretaker. 3.New couple’s parenting life undergoes a series of the mutual adjustment and adaption. Childbirth, not only resulting in the increase of financial burden but also mental pressure, has a enormous impact on the parents. The sequent busy life leads to less attention to relational maintenance between wife and husband. Also, the interaction with family of orientation might either cause increase of conflicts or enhance family’s centripetal forces. 4.Mutual supports from other new parents make one persevere in one’s parenting life. Social communities, such as Facebook, Line groups, becomes a rising star among new parents, also providing parenting knowledges. The use of Online Community, in this generation, becomes the trend of the times.
|