Formación y conocimientos para el trabajo con grupos

From the preceding discussion, it should be clear that the identification of appropriate terminology to accurately describe the nature of the concepts of “family”, “parenting”

and “care” is challenging. Variations in terminology are a function of the nature of the studies undertaken and dependent on context.³¹⁰ Given the importance of parental care and the changing nature of the “family” (as the primary caregiving structure) we need clarity about the core concepts underlying this study.

5 1 Family

The discussion thus far has shown that family is a difficult, if not impossible, concept to define.³¹¹ Essentially, there is no single, widely agreed-upon definition of the term

“family”.³¹² The main reason for this is that families continue to change and evolve.³¹³ The nature and perception of “family” change from place to place and from time to time, irrespective of culture and religion,³¹⁴ and are dependent on points of view as well as on social and cultural conditions.³¹⁵ This raises questions of how to define a

307 138.

308 138.

309 139.

310 Dancaster State and Employer Involvement in Work-Care Integration in South Africa 21.

311 Pieterse (2000) Stell LR 328.

312 Galvin et al Family communication 4.

313 DeFrain et al “Creating a Strong Family: Why Are Families So Important?” (2008) Nebguide University of Nebraska 1.

314 Galea (2011) IJJF 176.

315 Y Merin “The right to family life and civil marriage under international law and its implementation in the state of Israel” (2005) 28 BC Int'l & Comp L Rev 79 88.

family, where to establish its contours, and by what standards to determine when it starts and when it ends.³¹⁶

Historically, the family has been defined as a “permanent, monogamous, heterosexual institution based on marriage, including a clear division of gender roles”.³¹⁷ Determining who is a “family member”, who is a “spouse”, what is a

“marriage”, and who is considered a “parent”, has long been based on widely accepted legal and social perceptions.³¹⁸ Nevertheless, these perceptions have been questioned – mostly in the past few decades – as a result of social, legal, and political changes.³¹⁹

Families today are defining themselves, for themselves, through their interactions.³²⁰ At the same time, “longevity, legal flexibility, personal choice, ethnicity, gender, geographic distance, and reproductive technology are affecting the traditional biological and legal concepts of family”.³²¹ In “Families in Focus: New Perspectives on Mothers, Fathers and Children” the authors often pause to wonder what “family” really means?³²² They conclude that it encompasses the primary relationships that we, as individuals, identify as those we rely upon for sharing and caring.³²³

In addition to the absence of a single, universally accepted definition of the term

“family”, the legal definition of “family” is also unsettled.³²⁴ Courts, and legislatures, have defined family in various ways, depending on the nature of the inquiry.³²⁵

316 Galea (2011) IJJF 176.

317 Merin (2005) BC Int'l & Comp L Rev 88.

318 88.

319 88 and T Moyo The relevance of culture and religion to the understanding of children’s rights in South Africa LLM thesis University of Cape Town (2007) 15.

320 Galvin et al Family communication 4. “Families are as adaptable as they are diverse, re-configuring themselves over their life cycles and evolving to accommodate the myriad pressures of the external world”. See JBC Lloyd & A Leonard Families in Focus: New Perspectives on Mothers, Fathers and Children (1995) 1.

321 Galvin et al Family communication 4.

322 Lloyd & Leonard Families in Focus 113.

323 113.

324 M Treuthart “Adopting a more realistic definition of “family” (1990) Gonz L Rev 96.

325 96 and 112. While a group of persons may be considered a family for purposes of zoning restrictions, this same group may not meet the criteria for a family established by workers' compensation dependency provisions, public entitlement regulations, or insurance laws.

There is also no international law definition of the concept of family.³²⁶ The Human Rights Committee (“HRC”), responsible for monitoring the implementation of the ICCPR, has noted that a treaty definition of the concept of family at the international level would be inadequate given the variety of conceptions of family that exist throughout the world and even within a single given state.³²⁷ Therefore, the traditional definition of family, which revolved around the marital union and blood relationships between husband and wife, parent and child, has been extended to other unconventional familial ties.³²⁸

Consequently, the HRC has noted that state parties are at liberty to recognise various conceptions of family³²⁹ and that it is up to each state party to report on how the scope of family is defined in their own society and legal system.³³⁰ The US Supreme Court adhered to that and has defined the family in three ways, namely:

1 a traditional “nuclear family” of two parents and their children where the

parents are presumed to be acting in the best interests of their children. In this family, there is no need to give the children their own voice – even when parents do such things as institutionalise their children;

2 an extended-kind model of family consisting of a community of parents, siblings, grandparents and other relatives which should be recognised as a primary family, even if the blood-ties are not as strong as a nuclear family; and

326 Moyo The relevance of culture and religion to the understanding of children’s rights in South Africa 15. Also see ch 3 below for a discussion on the legal regulation of family.

327 UNHRC “CCPR General Comment No. 19: Article 23 (The Family) Protection of the Family, the Right to Marriage and Equality of the Spouses” (1990) UN Human Rights Committee

<http://www.refworld.org/docid/45139bd74.html> (accessed 24-06-2014) para 2.

328 Moyo The relevance of culture and religion to the understanding of children’s rights in South Africa 15. See part 4 1 6 above.

329 Such as nuclear, extended, single parent and cohabiting families. Moyo The relevance of culture and religion to the understanding of children’s rights in South Africa 15.

330 UNHRC “CCPR General Comment No. 19: Article 23 (The Family) Protection of the Family, the Right to Marriage and Equality of the Spouses” UN Human Rights Committee para 2.

However, the definition has to be “without discrimination” – see GV Bueren “The International Protection of Family Members' Rights as the 21st Century Approaches” (1995) 17 Hum Rts Q 732 735.

3 an individualist model where family members are equally independent and where individuality should be respected.³³¹

There is also no specific definition of the family in South African law.³³² The Constitutional Court has stated that:

“[F]amilies come in many shapes and sizes. The definition of the family also changes as social practices and traditions change. In recognising the importance of the family, we must take care not to entrench particular forms of family at the expense of other forms.”³³³

Relying on this dictum, Cronjé and Heaton have defined the concept of family as

“including all people who are blood relations or have become related through adoption or marriage, or marriage-like relationships”.³³⁴ This definition corresponds with the definition of “the family” in the Draft White Paper:

“a societal group that is related by blood (kinship), adoption, foster care or the ties of marriage (civil, customary or religious), civil union or cohabitation, and go beyond a particular physical residence”.³³⁵

5 2 Parenting (including parenthood and parents)

Concepts centred on the reproduction and care of infants and young people point to a cluster of terms around categories of people, established social forms, and activities in relation to children:³³⁶

“Parenthood concerns the process of identification of individual adults (parents) who are considered to have particular connections with individual children, with associated

331 J Dolgin “The Constitution As Family Arbiter: A Moral in the Mess?” (2002) Colum L Rev 337 379-383.

332 Moyo The relevance of culture and religion to the understanding of children’s rights in South Africa 19.

333 Dawood v Minister of Home Affairs 2000 3 SA 936 (CC) para 31.

334 D Cronjé & J Heaton South African Family Law 2 ed (2004) 3.

335 Department of Social Development Draft White Paper on Families 3, 11.

336 McCarthy & Edwards Key Concepts in Family Studies 141.

expectations for their care (parenting) and social positioning. As a term, parenthood is gender neutral.”³³⁷

“Parent” refers to a particular status, or category of person, of unspecified gender, who is identified as standing in a special relationship with an individual child or related children.³³⁸ In other words, individuals with a special responsibility for the care of children may be known as parents.³³⁹ In modern parlance, however, “parent” denotes the biological relationship of a mother and father to a child. ³⁴⁰ Hoghughi and Long qualify the term by such words as “adoptive” or “foster” parents, “parent surrogates” or

“carers” to keep the biological relationship distinct.³⁴¹ Austin defines a parent as

“someone who stands in a certain kind of relationship to another person”.³⁴² This definition also includes “non-biological” parents.³⁴³ In most parts of the world the term

“parent”, irrespective of its traditional dictionary definition, has come to be largely associated with caregiving.³⁴⁴

337 141.

338 141.

339 145.

340 Hoghughi & Long Handbook of Parenting 5.

341 5. Also see the inclusion of “adoptive parent” in the definition of “parent” in section 1 of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005. The notion of “biological” parenthood suggests that “parenting is supposed to be a natural phenomenon, based on biological ties, the sentiments of which are largely beyond rational planning and control”. In terms of this discourse, biological parents are favoured above all others in matters regarding parental authority and responsibility, solely by virtue of the genetic ties between them. The notion of “social” or “psychological” parenthood on the other hand, “places greater emphasis on the actual relationship between child and adult (whether biological ties are present or not) in the context of the family as a social unit”. Any person can in principle be a “psychological” parent, depending on the nature of the bond and quality of the interaction between the adult and child in question. A child may therefore, in certain circumstances, have a number of psychological parents, all of whom have relationships with the child which are important for its physical or psychological well-being. See Pieterse (2000) Stell LR 331-332.

342 M Austin Conceptions of Parenthood: Ethics and the Family (2007) 4.

343 See UK Department for Education “Parenting and Family Support: Guidance for Local Authorities in England” (March 2013) UK Department for Education <http://webarchive.nationa larchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDown load/DCSF-00264-2010.PDF> (accessed 15-02-2014) 9 where “parents” describes mothers, fathers, carers and other adults with responsibility for caring for a child, including families and friends, carers and those caring for looked-after children.

344 Meyiwa (2011) Social Dynamics: A Journal of African studies 167

“Parenting” may be defined as purposive activities aimed at ensuring the survival and development of children.³⁴⁵ It is usually done by the biological parents of the child in question, although government and society may also play a role.³⁴⁶ Parenting derives from the Latin verb parere – to bring forth, develop, or educate.³⁴⁷ The word

“parenting”, from its root, is more concerned with the activity of developing and educating than who actually does it.³⁴⁸ The verb “to parent” (or, more commonly,

“parenting”) means a process, an activity and an interaction, usually by adults with children, but not necessarily or exclusively their own.³⁴⁹

McCarthy and Edwards describe “Parenthood” as the identification of individuals occupying the category of “parent” – an ascribed status – regardless of activities with children.³⁵⁰

5 3 Care

It should be reiterated that the term “care” in this study refers to (unpaid) parental care in relation to dependent children. Parents are entrusted with the primary responsibility for the care of children³⁵¹ and it is therefore unsurprising that, in the light of the fact that the concepts of family, parenting and care are intertwined and function in conjunction with each other, “parental care” redirects to “parenting” on the internet.³⁵²

Jeanne Altman describes “parental care” as “….a term that most people would probably understand to mean any behaviour that is performed by a parent and that benefits its offspring”.³⁵³ “Care”, in respect of a child, therefor comprises a cluster of

345 Hoghughi & Long Handbook of Parenting 5.

346 Rummel Basics of Life 98.

347 Hoghughi & Long Handbook of Parenting 5.

348 5. What a parent does to fulfil the “duties” (to provide safety, security, nurturance, love and a supportive environment) of his or her role is in other words termed “parenting”. See R Lerner, A Brennan, E Noh & C Wilson “The Parenting of Adolescents and Adolescents as Parents: A Developmental Contextual Perspective” (1998) Parenthood in America <http://parenthood.libr ary.wisc.edu/Lerner/Lerner.html#top> (accessed 15-11-2013) 6.

349 Hoghughi & Long Handbook of Parenting 6.

350 McCarthy & Edwards Key Concepts in Family Studies 143.

351 Bridgeman (2007) NILQ 307.

352 Wikipedia “Parenting” (2014) Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/

wiki/Parenting> (accessed 03-04-2014) 1.

353 J Lancaster, J Altmann, A Rossi & L Sherrod Parenting Across the Life Span: Biosocial Dimensions (1987) 15

activities aimed at meeting the survival needs of children.³⁵⁴ These encompass the physical, emotional and social needs at different developmental stages.³⁵⁵ Bridgeman states that “caring about, taking care of and giving care to a child” include “feeding, clothing, providing a home, nursing through sickness, securing medical treatment, making decisions about the child's upbringing, ensuring the child is educated, providing appropriate moral guidance and discipline, protecting from harm, promoting physical and mental well-being, and nurturing social and intellectual development.”³⁵⁶

It has been stated that “… children have a legitimate interest in general physical, intellectual and emotional care within the confines of the capabilities of their care givers.”³⁵⁷ In some countries, many of these legitimate interests in care are incorporated into laws regarding protection of children and promotion of their welfare,³⁵⁸ because to care for a child is included in the parental responsibilities and rights that a person may have in respect of a child.³⁵⁹ Whilst the language of law employs the gender-neutral term “parental” responsibility, mothers are in practice mostly the primary providers of care. ³⁶⁰

Care also appears to fall into one of three groups of core activities that are necessary and sufficient for “good enough parenting”.³⁶¹Thus, “care” can best be seen as being concerned with factors that increase the child’s “resilience in the face of adversity and promote positive development”³⁶² and anyone concerned with the care

354 Hoghughi & Long Handbook of Parenting 7. Also see the definition of “care” in section 1 of the Children’s Act in ch 1, n 2 above.

355 7. Also see Jooste v Botha 2000 2 SA 199 (T) para 201F where Van Dijkhorst J remarked that:

“There are two aspects of a parent-child relationship. The economic aspect of providing for the child's physical needs and the intangible aspect of providing for his or her psychological, emotional and developmental needs. The best interests of the child demand an environment of love, affection and consideration.”

356 Bridgeman (2007) NILQ 309.

357 Jooste v Botha 2000 2 SA 199 (T) para 207G.

358 Hoghughi & Long Handbook of Parenting 7.

359 Hoghughi & Long Handbook of Parenting 7; McCarthy & Edwards Key Concepts in Family Studies 145.

360 Bridgeman (2007) NILQ 309.

361 Hoghughi & Long Handbook of Parenting 7. The other two groups are control and development.

362 7.

of a child can be seen as part of the parenting process.³⁶³ In turn, parenting is the major function of the family³⁶⁴ and the family is the site of caregiving.³⁶⁵