‘What are you doing for your kids?’ Exploring messages and Canadian parents’ Decisions and perspectives in children’s sport and free play
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to explore messages, formal (e.g. campaigns) and informal (e.g. parenting networks), heard by Canadian parents within children’s sport and free play and to understand their perceived role in parents’ experiences and decision making in these leisure contexts. Guided by interpretive description, twelve interviews were conducted with sport parents of children in middle childhood. The transcribed interviews were analysed and interpreted using a sociological lens. Our findings, which included three themes: 1) The ‘best’, 2) ‘That’ parent, and 3) Message confusion, suggested that messages from various levels of influence affect parents’ decision making within children’s sport and free play. Informal messages from parenting networks, community norms, and popular parenting labels (e.g. helicopter, over-protective) were influential. Formal messages were found to play less of a direct role. Parents’ perspectives of ‘good parenting’, current parenting ideologies, and the impact of messages are discussed.