Abstract
This chapter presents an introduction to the business of child caring. Using the consumer exhibition as example, I offer an analysis of seller-buyer interactions and on how this business is organised. The reader joins me on a day out at The Baby Show to become familiar with some of the main components that make up the consumer exhibition. Along the way, we listen to visitors’ reflections on their day out, their reasons for attending The Show, and their shopping practices. Drawing on product leaflets and website content, I provide an analysis of the ‘product content’ of childcare. I identify six pathways of child caring and argue that each of these pathways is supported by the teleoaffective structure of this practice, bringing together four main qualities of the young child: those of loveable, vulnerable, pure and the ‘need’ for nurturing. In the final part of this chapter, I provide an analysis of the spatial and material organisation of exhibitions, and consider how these organise the interactions between exhibitors and visitors. It is argued that the larger companies organise their exhibitions in ways where face-to-face interaction is minimal. In the conclusion, I argue that the main organisational components of the consumer exhibition are shared across different market environments.
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- 1.
On my first visit to The Baby Show in Glasgow in 2005, I paid £9 in entrance fees. In 2014, the price at the door of the NEC in Birmingham was £20. In my discussions with visitors, I know that free entrance tickets are offered to prospective parents through antenatal classes and midwives to draw people in. Each Show has its own price structure, with the London Shows being a little more expensive than the regional ones, and a price reduction for those who purchase tickets in advance online.
- 2.
Regularly present at The Show have been Volvo , Fisher Price, Mothercare , Huggies, Pampers, Phillips Avent , Tommee Tippee, Persil /Comfort and Fairy non-bio.
- 3.
Lesley visited The Baby Show with her partner Dan. When presenting quotations from interview transcripts, I have placed in brackets first information on whether the interview was with a couple or with a mother or mothers. This is followed by information on how many weeks into the pregnancy my interviewees were, whether the pregnancy was first time or not, the age of the interviewees, ethnicity and their class status based on their employment.
- 4.
The Earls Court Show Guide, 2009.
- 5.
Entry for HypnoBirthing on page 35 of The Earls Court Show Guide, 2009.
- 6.
From 2007, The Show has featured a photographic image of one infant on its promotional materials, and this image has been sourced from the photographs taken at The Show.
- 7.
Travel systems are a product group that includes car seats, prams, buggies and other baby carriers.
- 8.
This journey of becoming a responsible parent-consumer is discussed further in Chapter 8.
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Martens, L. (2018). The Business of Child Caring. In: Childhood and Markets . Studies in Childhood and Youth. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-31503-8_4
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