9
Extract 4
1
Lou: … my daughter she was upset about her father’s lay-off (.) now
she’s twenty-
2
five an (.) she's got a directorship of her company …
TS +CSC
Lou, one of the teachers is able to claim social capital through a child’s successes when
recalling her daughter’s reaction to her father’s prospective loss of job. She suddenly
switches from the topic of the job lay-off to note the fact, that at only twenty-five, her
daughter is director of her own company. Although this information was not relevant to
the topic being discussed it does give Lou an opportunity to claim associated social
capital from her daughter’s success. It appears to be a conversational strategy that
mitigates the threat to her own positive self-identity entailed in admitting to her partner’s
work ‘failure’. For these women, social capital is complexly interwoven with their
domestic relationships, much of their own social prestige is adjudged through perceptions
of the success of a partner’s or child’s achievements.
She had a bellyache last night: ‘The caring mother’.
A further characteristic associated with the ‘good mother’ is being seen as a
caring mother, someone who nurses their children through sickness or emotional
problems.
Extract 5
1
Sian: oh \no: (1.0) /alright ?
CSC [caring strategy}
2
Lisa: ( whining) mummy do:n't wa:nna be sick in school as well
3
Sian: get your fingers out your mouth then darling CSC [caring strategy]
Convention