Description
Many children experience an absent parent. Parents may be absent for a variety of reasons such as military deployment, death, or drug and alcohol abuse. Often, children’s questions about the absent parent are directed at the caregiving parent, who is then expected to provide answers about the absentee parent. Parents struggle with how to communicate absence to their children in a way that facilitates the resolution of their unanswered questions. There are few research studies that examine how caregiving parents can effectively help their child navigate through absence using specific communicative strategies. This study uses autoethnography as a method, following the narrative of a young single mother and her six-year old son, who has never met his father. By taking a deeper look into the conversations that arise between the two, this study explores the difficulties in communicating absence as well as communicative strategies that can foster healthier perspectives for the children of an absent parent. Keywords: Family communication, single mother, absent parent, parent-child communication, adolescent sense-making, communicating absence
