Working mothers and their experience of the Klabb 3-16 after-school service

Abstract

The aim of this research was to explore the experience which working mothers have in relation to the after-school service programme Klabb 3-16 offered by the Foundation for Educational 福利在线免费 (FES). The study focuses on the experience of mothers since they are still presumed as the main care givers in the upbringing of their children. In order to achieve this aim, the study adopted a qualitative approach. Semistructured interviews were conducted with eight mothers who have children between the ages of three and ten years old and who are currently using the after-school service Klabb 3-16. The data collected from the interviews was analysed using the Thematic Analysis approach. Some minor additional data from an online survey complements this study. The research has shown that mothers deal with most of the issues related to after-school issues, even when the father is present in the family. Whilst many see the after-school service as essential, some of the mothers still feel guilty about leaving their children in care after the normal school hours. The study indicated that the availability or the lack of availability of the service on certain days, the location of the service and the opening hours affect the working mothers most. Some issues were flagged in relation to both the quality of the service as well as the quality of the employees working at Klabb 3-16. The study suggests that that whilst the service being offered is filling in some of the gaps which exist between work and school schedules, mothers are still struggling to ensure that their children are always taken care of during afterschool hours. Mothers are thus suffering various consequences which are forcing them to alter their own schedules. This suggests that the service needs to be improved in order to support mothers in order to keep up with their dualrole as employees and care givers for their children.