Making a living, Raising a life: Lived Experiences of Filipino Parents in Managing Household Finances and Early Childhood Rearing
Keywords:
young parents, early childhood, household finances, work, responsibilitiesAbstract
This case study aims to explore the lived experiences of low- to middle-income young Filipino families in their management and balancing of family livelihood, specifically managing household finance and child-rearing responsibilities as they transition into a young family. The study seeks to contribute to the existing literature by exploring how young Filipino parents translate livelihood constraints, caregiving demands, and available social support into their everyday parenting practices during early childhood— an area that remains limited in Philippine family studies, where parenting is often examined separately from economic and structural conditions. The research utilized a qualitative narrative design to examine the lived experiences of Filipino parents in managing household finances and rearing young children. The participants of this research are ten (10) first-time parents with children aged three to five years old who are enrolled in public day care centers from the municipality of Los Baños, Laguna. Through thematic analysis, several interconnected themes were identified that greatly reflect how parents reorganize their resources through negotiation, communication, and support. These themes provide insights into how young families adjust to parenthood within economic, familial, and socioemotional contexts. The findings showed that livelihood conditions and income constraints strongly shaped parental involvement, household reorganization, prioritization of demands, child-rearing practices, and how parents allocate resources in their everyday lives. As the young parents’ transition, they continuously redefine household and parenting roles, manage demands, and negotiate expectations through open communication and accessing available support, which highlights the dynamic nature of family management. In addition to that, they remain emotionally present and responsive to their partners and their children amidst the high demands of balancing work and household responsibilities.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
