‘Just a Mother’? Parenthood and Care-Giving with Disabled Children

In this chapter I tell the stories of five mothers of disabled children: Rose, Barbara, Pauline, Violet and Nell. Rose and Barbara’s children were still young, while the other three women were supporting disabled sons and a daughter who were adults. Their stories reflect experiences of becoming a parent of a disabled child at different historical moments, as well as the different lengths of time for which they had been caring, although the birth of their child was not necessarily their first experience of care-giving. At the end of each story I provide a brief summary of key conceptual issues arising from these narratives, which I will develop in later chapters, and at the end of the chapter I reflect on the relationship between people’s identities as carers and their personal biographies.