We investigated experiences of mothers of school-age
children in Central New York during a time of remote education
due toCOVID-19.We extend the concept of intensive
mothering, characterized by the expectation that mothers
are constantly available to meet their children’s needs,
and examine mothers’ intersectional identities related to
their experience of remote education. Mothers working
from home often went back and forth between work and
school in what we refer to as a simultaneous shift. Essential
workers were engaged in a sequential shift, engaging
with children’s schoolwork after work and trading off with
partners. Mothers took on multiple roles during the pandemic
which led to role strain. In extreme cases, multiple
roles could be impossible to fill, leading to a situation
of role conflict where the demands of one role made it
impossible to meet the needs of another role. Mothers of
children of color experienced more negative interactions
with schools thanWhite mothers.Mothers of childrenwith
disabilities spent extended time on remote schooling. A
limitation of our study is that we only interviewed people
in Central New York and cannot generalize the results of
our research to a larger population. Another limitation to
our approach was that we have little information on how
fathers experiencedwork and overseeing children’s schoolwork.
Future research should examine howmotheringmay
have changed after children returned to school.
