Emotion work and emotional labour, neglected facets of parental health information work : Analysing mothers of neurodivergent children

The neoliberal and biomedical ‘good caregiver’ discourse neglects the many facets of everyday information work that parents of children with specialneeds are required to do as they seek, receive and shareinformation concerning their children’s health andwellbeing. Along with time and skills, one such neglected facet is emotion work, the management of feelings in relation to societal norms. The purpose of this article is to explore emotion work, as a facet in parental health information work in the care and education sector, among mothers of neurodivergentchildren. Our analysis draws on interviews with 50 Swedish mothers of neurodivergent children. We present three primary insights. 1. Emotion work, on theself as well as on others, is pivotal to the information work that the mothers carry out in the education and care sector as they strive to ameliorate their children’ssituation. 2. Contested diagnoses, such as diagnoses associated with neurodivergent conditions, result in intense parental information and emotion work. 3. Fragmented and complex education and care systems, alongside traditional gender structures, compel mothers to undertake extensive information andemotion work.