There is an interesting intersection between the rise in expectations and standards for domestic literacy work in the 1980s, and the phenomenon of middle-class women entering the workforce and challenging ideals of the “normal family.” Indeed, just as women were making more places for themselves in public life, discourses of “intensive mothering” became more prevalent. Gone were the days when helping with homework was discouraged, or homework was considered the responsibility of children themselves.

In the 1970s there were only five articles on the topic of children, reading and schooling in Chatelaine; in the 1980s there were over 30. Similarly, Parent Magazine (which changed its title from Parents’ & Better Homemaking Magazine in 1978), in the company of Redbook, Better Homes and Gardens and even Phi Delta Kappan, ran a total of 18 articles from 1978 to 1985 that supported the new teaching roles created for mothers. On topics that varied from “Should You Teach Your Baby to Read?” (McGrath, 1980) to “How Well Are Our Schools Teaching Our Children to Read?” (Kaercher, 1984) and “The Working Mothers’ Dilemma” (Grant, 1985), the impact upon women’s involvement in the workforce and the growing importance of their domestic literacy work were key themes in the new “literacy crisis” facing North America.

Gone were the days when talking to and reading with children in the home was sufficient to promote reading readiness. Books, magazine articles, and family literacy classes were now dedicated to teaching mothers how to help their children with their homework, promote their baby’s and toddler’s intelligence through books, and even more importantly, how to help children to become “school ready.” The formula for creating a home environment conducive to school readiness intersected, and in many ways was a variation on Trelease’s (1982) theme of managing domestic time and space. Gray (1985), writing in Chatelaine, offered mothers whose children were having problems in school, tips on “How to Help Your Child Through the Difficult Stages”. This advice normalized the view that children’s school difficulties were mothers’ responsibility to address, through polite and cooperative communication with teachers. The advice in “How to Help Your Child with Homework”, (Maynard, 1987) was offered by a school principal. This principal recommended that children should:

[E]njoy family reading time in which all family members sit down together, each with a book or a magazine, for about 15 minutes. This daily ritual (which should not replace bedtime stories read by parents) shows children that reading is as much a part of adult life as TV. (p. 37)