Exploring performances of (hyper) intensive motherhood in the setting of Manchester’s Christmas markets

This article explores performances of intensive motherhood in the context of taking children to visit Manchester’s Christmas markets. Much sociological literature has studied intensive motherhood within the safe, managed space of the home. Less work, however, has examined performances of motherhood in urban spaces. Through in-depth interviews with 16 mothers with recent experience of taking their children to the Christmas markets, we highlight how such festive urban experiences surface tensions in intensive motherhood display. Intensive motherhood is grounded in shielding children from risk, yet our findings reveal how visiting the city-centre during the Christmas period exposed children to a range of perceived dangers. Our mothers reinterpreted the concept of intensive motherhood, performing a hyper-intensified practice in response to the less predictable nature of this ‘risky’ setting. We contribute to intensive motherhood literature and highlight several risk management strategies that participants employed to manage the risk their children were exposed to.