3. Gather together a selection of childcare advice literature from sources – ranging from recent, to those of the 1980s (such as Hugh Jolly and Penelope Leach), to the ‘experts’ of the 1950s and 1960s such as Benjamin Spock and earlier. Many public and college libraries as well as online archives have endless amounts of such material. It is also useful to include literature that is provided free of charge at health centres, doctors’ surgeries or family planning clinics, or distributed by health visitors, and to analyse material in childcare magazines, of which there are currently many. Having allocated this material to individuals or pairs, address the following questions:

• What is the gender of the child depicted (and how do you know)?

• What is the gender of the primary caregiver?

• What is the gender of professionals (if they are depicted)?

• What is the tone of the advice offered?

• What models of family relations are represented?

• How culturally specified is the form of childhood depicted?
• Which kinds of childhood would be privileged, and which marginalised, in each account?
Simple questions such as these can generate interesting commentary and debate, particularly if the material under scrutiny spans a significant period of time, or is clearly addressed to different audiences (as in those who buy versus those who are statutory recipients of services). Attend to tensions or contradictions, as in variation between articles and advertising copy within a single text such as a magazine, or between narrative and image. An exercise like this can bring to life questions about variety and variability of childcare literature over time and within and between classes and cultures that make the discursive construction of childhood and the correlative positions elaborated for mothers, fathers and others very clear.