Traditional Parenting
Women involved in traditional parenting included five mothers who quit smoking during pregnancy and remained smoke free for up to two years postpartum. Two women maintained significant reductions in their smoking during the same time period (a reduction to 1 cigarette per day [CPD] from half a pack and 4-6 cig/day from 10-12 CPD pre-pregnancy, respectively). The smoking status of their partners/husbands included three fathers who had never smoked, one father who quit one week before the birth of his child, and another who quit when his child was one year old.
In their narratives these women aligned with emphasised femininities; they accepted full responsibility for childcare and the domestic work. Their male partners aligned with hegemonic masculinity; they all worked outside the home and had minimal involvement in domestic activities. Although smoking was a non-issue for most of the couples in this group because of their smoke-free status, all who quit or reduced smoking for pregnancy or parenthood remained vulnerable to relapse. Participants described experiences of cravings, worry about occasional slips, difficulties in remaining smoke-free, and concern about returning to activities that involved regular smoking in the past. For women, vulnerability to relapse appeared to be related to the stress of managing childcare along with the demands related to returning to paid work. For men, vulnerability to relapse was associated with being "out with the boys." As such, there was an undercurrent in the narratives of the need to be vigilant. Women in particular felt pressure to maintain their tobacco reduction. As one woman stated, smoking mothers are "more frowned upon" than fathers, because women are the primary caregivers. And, as the partner of a mother who spent long hours alone at home with her child said of the woman's tobacco reduction, her smoking is "self-regulated" by childcare responsibilities, and she "only smoked" outdoors. Smoking restrictions at home and in the car supported household tobacco reduction efforts, and were deemed as relatively easy to implement -- most couples no longer smoked indoors.
Although mothers' ability to remain quit or maintain reductions in this traditional parenting subgroup supports literature documenting how women's partners' smoking status influences their ability to remain quit [
10], gender influences reinforced by a traditional parenting style also appeared to play a key role. Strongly related to
emphasized femininities, women in this group subscribed to the conventional notion of the "good mother" [
39]. Strong alignment with this gender discourse precluded a return to daily smoking, and resulted in women leading the couple towards tobacco reduction.
Hegemonic masculinity also characterized gender relations among traditional parenting dyads albeit in less visible ways. Two of the women, both long-term daily smokers, had successfully maintained their quit status at the time of interview 2, but were partnered with men who smoked occasionally. These women accepted that their breadwinner partners smoked on infrequent, social occasions, always with their permission. The partner's occasional smoking was situated as reward-based incentives for meeting their family obligations.
Shared Parenting
Women involved in shared parenting included 8 mothers who quit for their pregnancy and remained quit at two years postpartum, as well as one mother who reduced during her pregnancy and maintained a reduction. The mothers in this group were clear about their resolve related to smoking, as one mother stated: "I just really believe that cigarette smoke and babies don't mix." We speculated as to whether shared parenting practices may have more readily facilitated mothers' and fathers' successful transition to smoke-free homes and families; however, a closer investigation of the dyad summary data revealed how alignment with masculinities and femininities added a layer of complexity to this transition.
A dual smoking couple's successful transition to becoming dual smoke-free parents after smoking together for 15 years showed how contemporary parenting discourses mediated the father's alignment with masculine ideals. Both parents in this dyad described highly egalitarian parenting practices; after the birth, the couple rearranged their work lives so that one of them was always at home with the child, and this resulted in the father running his carpentry business in the evenings so that he could care for the child during the day when the mother worked. The first time mother was steadfast to staying smoke-free, "I told myself for years, I will not be a smoking mother of a young child." She maintained her cessation alone for almost two years during which she continually encouraged her partner to quit smoking. Only when she threatened to return to smoking if he did not become a smoke-free parent did the father join her by quitting smoking. The father emphasized how parenthood and supporting his partner's quit attempt was the sole reason for giving up the pleasure of smoking: "Let's say if I would live alone, probably I would smoke. Not probably, I'm pretty sure." He also stated, "I felt kind of responsible, you know, after two years it would be too sad to, to not give her at least a chance to stay smoke free" The man's comments suggest that his acceptance of new fatherhood values mediated and conflicted with his alignment to complicit masculinities. As well, we noted that the mother led the quitting efforts within the context of a shared parenting dynamic, pointing to gender interactions characterized by ambivalent (shifting to protest) femininities (her ultimatum) that strategically relied on social acceptance of the responsibilities in the new father role to modify complicit masculinity, as presented by her husband.
Similarly, another mother from a shared parenting, non-smoking dyad, who prior to her pregnancy had a 20-year smoking history and numerous unsuccessful cessation attempts, quit smoking during her pregnancy, and was followed in the quit attempt several months later by the father. At interview time 2 the couple reported they had remained smoke-free together. The mother described the couple's parenting practices saying, "We're pretty much equal in everything, in all our decisions and stuff."
Although both these couples embraced a lifestyle focussed around shared parenting that entailed significant father involvement at home, the mothers in most instances led the decision to become a smoke-free family. This suggests that shared and egalitarian parenting practices may position women to exert more influence around family decision making [
40]. However, it does not negate the potential for male partners to take an active role in ensuring women remain smoke free. In one dyad, a mother (and professional lawyer) eliminated the conflict over her smoking by quitting during pregnancy and remaining quit. Although she was adamant that she "always knew" she wouldn't smoke as a mother, her anti-smoking husband was cognizant of the possibilities of relapse. He stated that if anyone encouraged his partner to smoke again he would, "step in pretty quickly and tell them to beat it." In this instance, we can read the voice of the new father drawing on hegemonic masculinity to defend and maintain the good mother. During this man's interview, we queried what would happen should his partner relapse and he stated that he viewed such a decision as grounds for divorce. We encountered this same perspective from non-smoking fathers in our previous research on women's smoking and pregnancy [
10].
In two dyads in this shared parenting group, the fathers remained smokers over the duration of the study. It is possible that use of tobacco constitutes a familiar mechanism for men vested in maintaining traditional masculine identities as they transition into fatherhood. Nonetheless, the dyads illustrated the friction and discomfort that developed when smoking practices reflective of hegemonic masculinity lingered in a shared parenting dynamic. For example, in one of dyads the mother successfully quit during the pregnancy and was the only participant who maintained her cessation with a spouse who was a daily smoker. Interestingly, this woman was also the main breadwinner for her family and returned to work before her maternity benefits expired demonstrating a break with conventional motherhood and emphasized femininities. She attempted to obtain an agreement from her partner that he would stay home and perform fulltime childcare during the first year, however, he retracted this agreement stating he preferred to work in construction part-time. She was clear about her position on smoking, "I think that if you have kids you should make the decision to stop smoking for the good of your family and just stop." Accordingly, she continued to lobby and demand her husband to quit (reflective of protest femininities). She eventually conceded, however, by recognizing his reduction from a pack to half a pack a day and reluctantly accepted that he would continue to smoke, perhaps as a strategy to reduce the tobacco-related conflict that was evident in their marriage. We conjectured that continued smoking in the context of shared parenting produced conflict because both partners had become more vested in daily childcare and domestic routines, thus making tobacco use more visible because it was no longer contained in separate gendered spheres.
The other mother in a shared parenting dyad with a father who smoked reduced rather than quit for her pregnancy. The couple had reduced together during the pregnancy and remained a dyad of light smokers at time 2, however, the father always smoked slightly less than the mother (1-2 CPD). Although the mother had reduced from half a pack to 2-3 cigarettes a day during the pregnancy, she increased her smoking levels to 4 CPD during the first year postpartum. At that same time her maternity benefits came to an end and each parent was working part-time and sharing childcare responsibilities equally. This dyad, who also smoked marijuana together, was an unusual classification in our sample and we viewed the mothering of this 22-year-old mother as aligned with ambivalent, if not protest femininities. She stated that the "big urge to quit" associated with pregnancy had past, that tobacco was her "security blanket right now," and that smoking had a place in her family. Her partner hoped that their childcare responsibilities would foster a "natural reduction" over time. Smoking for this young woman seemed to represent the freedom and rebellion of youth without the responsibilities of motherhood and represented a means to protest social norms for women and mothers. From a gender relations perspective, this father may be either seen as promoting tobacco reduction in a conciliatory fashion of a new father, or as following the mother's lead to maintain his own continued smoking.
In summary, shared parenting practices were linked with a commitment to tobacco cessation with less acceptance of men's smoking, and alignment with gender discourses that challenged hegemonic masculinity.