Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
9-2025
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
Sociology
Advisor
Jessica H. Hardie
Committee Members
Tamara Mose
Michael Yarbrough
Sarah Damaske
Subject Categories
Family, Life Course, and Society | Inequality and Stratification
Keywords
parenting, motherhood, child care, family, inequality
Abstract
Modern childrearing in the United States is set in a context of high economic inequality and a competitive, privatized early childcare system. As a result, mothers experience class anxieties on behalf of their children and practice status safeguarding through early childcare arrangements. Using in-depth interviews, this dissertation demonstrates how high-earning, New York City-based mothers of babies and toddlers (ages 0-3) select care arrangements and how they hope their children will benefit. I explore mothers’ priorities and decision-making through a lens of priceless parenting, a novel theoretical contribution to the field of family studies presented herein. A priceless parenting framework considers the sacralization of parenting alongside the economic realities of childrearing in a capitalist structure. This framework elucidates the ways that high-earning mothers adhere to culturally appropriate standards of good parenting through the “sacrifice” of economic resources, providing a foundation for class reproduction from children’s earliest ages. I show how priceless parenting has emerged from conditions of economic inequality and reveal the status safeguarding measures parents take on in response to resulting class anxieties, including reliance on specialized care, social closure, and opportunity hoarding to protect their children’s class positions. In doing so, I reveal the pressures and internalized expectations of parenting under capitalism, showing how and why parenting practices and childcare choices contribute to the reproduction of inequality.
Recommended Citation
Wolf, Talya, "Priceless Parenting: Sacred Childrearing, Capitalism, and Early Childcare Choices" (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6505
