transition to second-time fatherhood

1
Chapter 4: Jack’s Stories across Phase 1 and Phase 21
This chapter examines Jack’s stories across the transition to second-time fatherhood.
Phase One
Setting the scene: the interview. Jack’s first interview takes place on the same day
and shortly after Claire’s first interview. Claire left the house to pick up Shane from nursery
and then went to her mother-in-law’s home. Jack and I go into the living room to conduct the
interview, and we are not interrupted. Considering he needs to leave to go to work in a while,
he eats his lunch while we talk. As with Claire, we start with the biographical interview
which is straight away and smoothly followed by the semi-structured interview.
Jack’s Phase One Narrative Analysis
Jack’s construction of his sense of self before the second child. When Jack speaks
of times of distress, he tells stories about how he copes with them. This is illustrated in the
following narrative (see Table 12):
1
The two research questions that were being addressed in these analyses and interpretations were:
• How does each partner of the couple (re)construct their sense of self as an individual through the
stories they tell?
• How do the stories that each partner narrates (re)construct their sense of their couple relationship?
2
Table 12

Jack constructs himself as someone who becomes very anxious when something
distressing happens, whereby the anxious feelings become overwhelming for him. The
multiple events of the narrative emphasise Jack’s actions of support seeking by the eventual
verbalisation of his anxious feelings. The Orientation serves to portray him as having a
support network he can trust, although it highlights that it is mainly Claire that Jack turns to
for support purposes. Nevertheless, as the narrative unfolds, the main event and its meaning
function to illustrate Jack as immediately feeling very anxious following a stressful
experience. The account illuminates Jack’s ensuing self-soothing behaviour which serves to
3
convey him as someone who copes independently in the first instance. This can also be seen
when Jack says elsewhere “I do that… for a while by myself, I just isolate and try and battle
those thoughts and perhaps go for a walk or listen to music or distract myself…” and:
I take a time out and I go for a walk or something, then I start to rationalise with
myself and say ‘well actually hang on, you’re not going to end up… homeless
or… isolated or, it’s not going to be the worst case scenario’. I calm myself down.
The narrative indicates Jack’s process of taking some time alone to autonomously selfsoothe and calm down before seeking support from others “and then I’m able to finally
verbalise it and say ‘oh, you know, this happened to me today’ or ‘this made me anxious’ or
‘this got to me’.” This seems to illustrate that Jack constructs himself as someone who is both
self-reliant and can cope independently, as well as a person who is reliant on others and can
depend on them for support during times of distress.
When speaking of his feelings of stress, Jack tells me about a time when he felt this
way due to his previous job. This narrative is illustrated in the following (see Table 13):
Table 13

4

The events of the narrative illustrate the understanding and supportive actions of
Jack’s family, who are portrayed by the text as caring and as wanting the best for him. The
events also describe some of the physical and emotional health consequences that were
arising for Jack as a result of his stressful job, helping to demonstrate the severity of the
anxiety he was experiencing during those times. Furthermore, the multiple Evaluations also
help to emphasise the severe stress. It seems that the various elements that comprise this
narrative work together to both persuade and to illustrate to the listener just how stressful
Jack’s job was and the repeated effects it was having on him.
This builds up to the end of the story, which concludes with an Evaluation and
Resolution. These elements indicate that despite how stressed Jack was and despite his family
offering advice and support, he retains agency by being the actual decision-maker, rendering
the others there to “bounce ideas off.” This seems to illustrate that the support Jack receives
from others enables him to feel supported to make his own decision. This can further be seen
when he says the following:
5
it’s not about getting advice, it’s not about getting answers… it’s just about
someone saying ‘I’m here for you no matter what’ and… like- like I said the
decision about my job, in the way that my family said ‘whatever decision you
make, we’ll support you.’ It’s that sense of ok, whatever happens, I will be
accepted and it will be ok.
This text describes the importance for Jack of other’s unconditionality and unwavering
support regardless of what decision he makes; Jack also doesn’t want his problems fixed by
them and that is not what they are offering him, which he values. This account illustrates that
Jack will seek support from others when needed, and will take their views into account, but
ultimately, it is he who makes the decision. Jack constructs himself as someone who is
autonomous and independent, yet can turn to and rely on others for support when needed.
Furthermore, he constructs himself as someone who feels accepted unconditionally by close
others regardless of his actions, thereby constructing himself as someone who feels secure in
both himself and in his relationships.
The interview text may serve to locate Jack as someone who portrays himself as doing
the ‘right thing’ when he looks for ways to cope with difficulties. This may be particularly
significant when considering that Jack is an attachment therapist, and he knows that I am an
attachment researcher. Furthermore, Jack is a therapist for couples and is also aware that the
research he is participating in explores couple relationships. The stories he tells me about his
experiences with stress and about his relationships may function to portray Jack as someone
who is knowledgeable in this matter and knows what the appropriate thing to do is as
someone with a secure attachment, as well as demonstrating that he actually does it. This can
also be seen by his use of technical language, such as “I rationalise with myself”, “I have
quite a narrative approach to it”, “catastrophising”, “I tell myself a different story”, “I make
sense of it in a different way”. This suggests that Jack may draw on his professional identity
6
of being couples’ attachment therapist to make sense of himself, which is also illustrated in
his words:
you know, some of the EFT 2 research talks about this idea of outsourcing our
emotions and I think that’s what goes on for me, is that actually I’m outsourcing,
you know, I feel the anxiety and then by sharing it with others or by holding
hands with someone I’m actually kind of outsourcing it and sharing it and so
there’s less of a burden on me.
Jack constructs himself as someone who is self-aware and understands his anxious
feelings and behaviour as well as how the processes by which these are overcome. He also
constructs himself as knowledgeable and as an expert in the topic of attachment theory and
relationships.
Jack’s construction of his sense of his couple relationship before the second child.
Claire is the person that Jack primarily turns to for comfort “I’d say 99 times out of 100”, and
he tells stories about their couple relationship as being supportive. This is exemplified in the
following narrative about a stressful time when they moved house in Table 14:
2 Emotionally Focused Therapy
7
Table 14

The events of the story are repeatedly interrupted in order for their meaning to be put
forward, illustrating Jack’s importance of outlining his perspective about what was happening
that day. There is minimal Orientation setting the scene, which seems to serve the purpose of
allowing more time and space for the events and their respective meanings. The first event of
the narrative demonstrates the many factors that were being juggled on the day that they were
all moving house. The main Evaluation of the narrative outlines just how stressed Jack was
feeling, and how difficult he found it not to become angry or frustrated because of it all.
These events and Evaluations build up to the narrative’s Resolution which conveys that Jack
took some time for himself and also spent some time with Claire, followed by its meaning
8
that he was accessing his support. This suggests that Jack is able seek support from Claire in
the particular way which meets his needs.
We have seen through the analysis and interpretation of how Jack constructs his sense
of self as having a soothing process of taking some alone time in the first instance to calm
down when feeling anxious, before turning to others for support. This narrative also
illustrates the process when Jack takes the time out, as well as highlighting its importance.
However, the narrative additionally indicates that turning to Claire when he is feeling stressed
is just as important for Jack, and serves to portray her as forming part of Jack’s soothing
process. This is further illuminated when Jack tells me about Claire’s role “a problem shared
is a problem halved so it was just that sense of just… you know, being able to share what was
going on, having that support and… having that back-up”, indicating that Jack feels soothed
and supported by Claire. It seems that Jack constructs his sense of his couple relationship as
one which is supportive and comforting in times of stress.
Jack also constructs his couple relationship as one which facilitates him to feel free to
have space and time to be able to enact his own particular comfort-seeking routine of first
self-soothing and then turning to Claire for support. He further constructs his couple
relationship as one where he is able to maintain a balance between a sense of independence as
well as dependence on Claire.
Jack recounts stories about shared experiences of stress and he speaks about how he
and Claire support each other together. This can be seen in the following story in Table 15
regarding a particularly stressful day. This story has been previously examined in Claire’s
interviews, however it is being told from Jack’s perspective here:
9
Table 15

The Abstract immediately conveys that this story will be about an extremely stressful
recent time, with the Orientation setting the scene that Claire was already feeling upset by an
earlier interaction with her mother. This initial part of the account illuminates that there were
already stressed feelings before any of the actual events of this narrative are told, further
helping to convey just how stressful the day actually was. Jack lists all of the things that went
10
wrong on that day in the new house that they have recently moved into. The text locates the
meaning of this to be that both Jack and Claire were feeling very frustrated with these series
of problems, as well as serving to portray both Jack and Claire as being able to cope with
these problems together despite their frustrations.
The story’s ensuing lengthy Complicating Action demonstrates how they jointly dealt
with the many problems by listing all of the things that they did together. Jack explains the
meaning of these shared events to be that it is about having support through the difficult and
stressful times, conveying that he felt supported by Claire through the actions of dealing with
problems together with her. The Resolution of the narrative illustrates that they were able to
tackle the issues systematically and to not permit them to become overwhelming, perhaps
because they have mutual support.
Nevertheless, the language used in this narrative is at times somewhat ambiguous
when alluding to who plays the role of the support-giver and who plays the role of the
support-receiver. For example when Jack says “it’s just about having that support throughout
and dealing with these one by one”, it is not directly clear whether it is Claire who is
providing the support and Jack who is receiving the support in this particular narrative. When
exploring Jack’s narratives further, they seem to also indicate that Jack and Claire are both
being mutually supportive of each other when they experience a stressful situation together.
This suggests that Jack constructs himself as a support-giver as well as a support-receiver in
his couple relationship with Claire.
This is also exemplified in Jack’s following words about not accomplishing
everything they planned to get done on the day that they were moving house “I was just able
to go ‘ok, we’ll get it done another day’ or ‘we did the best that we could, it’s not a big deal’
and to look on the bright side of things and stay positive”. This account further illustrates that
11
Jack also provides support to Claire as well as receiving support from her. Furthermore, the
significance for Jack of both of them playing the roles of support-provider and supportreceiver is clearly conveyed in the following extracts which discuss the important aspects of
Jack’s relationships as being “being there for each other” and “available for each other”. It
appears as though Jack constructs his sense of his couple relationship with Claire as one
which is supportive of him and he is accepting of that support, as well as one which is
supportive of her. Consequently, Jack constructs his sense of his couple relationship as one
where both partners of the relationship are available to provide support for each other during
experiences of stress.
Narrative analysis summary. Jack constructs his sense of self as someone who
maintains a balance between coping with difficult experiences independently and by
depending on others for support. Jack also constructs himself as someone who has
characteristics of secure attachment both in himself and in his relationships, as well as
someone who is insightful of his own feelings and behaviour. Jack constructs himself as
someone who is knowledgeable in the topic of attachment theory and relationships, and as
such, an expert in this field.
In addition, Jack constructs his sense of his couple relationship as one which is
comforting and supportive, where he is able to maintain his balance between independence
and dependence on Claire for support. He also constructs his sense of his couple relationship
as one where they are both available to each other, and as one which is mutually supportive.
Phase Two
Setting the scene: the interview. This is the second individual interview with Jack,
which takes place when their second child is four months old. Jack has arrived home during
the interview with Claire, and does not interrupt other than to call out hello from the hallway.
12
Once Claire and I have finished her interview, Jack comes into the living room to greet us.
Claire then leaves the house to pick up Shane from the nursery and does not return before
Jack and I finish his interview. About a third of the way in, Jack’s phone rings twice and
interrupts the interview – I stop the audio recorder both times as he needs to take these work
calls. Nevertheless, each time we pick off where we left off and the interview continues
seamlessly.
Jack’s Phase Two Narrative Analysis
Jack’s construction of his sense of self after the second child. Jack speaks about
behaving self-reliantly in the first instance when he encounters a stressful situation. This is
illustrated when he says the following:
The immediate response is definitely… to kind of try and be self-sufficient just
because as I’ve just said you know, I was an only child and that’s my habit that
I’ve learned is that, can I deal with this on my own? Can I try and deal with this
on my own?
The text describes Jack’s first reaction to a stressful situation as behaving self-reliantly;
it emphasises and attributes this to his being an only child and to it being a habit carried into
his adulthood. The use of the words “only child” and “habit” seems to serve the purpose of
conveying Jack’s self-reliance as a first response to stress as something that is difficult to
break and is involuntary. In addition, Jack’s questioning of his ability to go it alone appear to
serve to further exemplify his self-sufficiency and how this is a “habit”. However, the
account also portrays Jack as someone who will seek support after firstly attempting to cope
on his own “I kind of deal with it myself, try and see if I can find a solution myself as that
only child syndrome and then if not, then I kind of seek help after that.” The text seems to
serve to emphasise yet again why this first response to stress occurs, as well as where it stems
13
from. This suggests that the text conveys Jack as not being in control of his immediate
reactions to stress. He seems to construct his sense of self as being blameless for behaving in
this manner.
Jack also describes how when this initial strategy of self-reliance does not work, he will
then seek support. This appears to portray him as someone who recognises when he cannot
cope alone and then decides what he does next about it, which is also depicted in the
following text “when I’m ready, go and talk about it.” Jack seems to construct himself as
someone who has agency over his support needs following the initial response.
However, there appears to be tension in the way in which the account positions Jack’s
sense of self when reacting to stressful situations. He constructs his process when reacting to
stress as taking place in a linear manner, from involuntary reaction of self-sufficiency through
to intentional actions of support-seeking when the first strategy does not work. This tension
seems to be resolved through Jack’s construction of himself as someone who is not limited by
his sense of the past and its consequences on his present. This is despite the construction of
his awareness of the impact they currently have.
Jack speaks about his process in response to stress, and is illustrated in the following
narrative (see Table 16):
Table 16

14

The Abstract is constructed by my question about one of two stressful events
concerning emails that were mentioned previously by Jack. He responds by situating the story
as being about the first email. This leads to the Complicating Action which serves to illustrate
how Jack attempts to cope with the stressful event on his own. It also shows how when he
realises that it is not possible, Jack will either seek support from Claire or hope that she
notices his distress. The Complicating Action is interrupted by a brief Evaluation, which
serves to convey the meaning of Jack’s ability to openly discuss the situation as being
immensely useful. The interruption may indicate that it was important for the narrative to
break from the events at this particular point in order to communicate and emphasise this
meaning, suggesting that Jack places value on seeking support from others during stressful
situations.
The Complicating Action continues, describing how Claire provides support, as well
as of how Jack then reacts as a result of this comfort. This leads to the outcome of the story,
which is that it will normally turn out to be all right. This second Complicating Action and
the Resolution seem to further illustrate the meaning of the Evaluation, by describing the
manner in which Jack is supported after turning to someone else for help. This suggests that
15
the account portrays Jack as someone who realises when he cannot comfort himself, and as
someone who then seeks help from others and feels supported when he does so.
This narrative seems to also emphasise the “habit” that Jack has of attempting to selfsoothe in the first instance of encountering a stressful situation, despite his construction of his
awareness of how helpful it is to seek support from others. This suggests that Jack constructs
himself as being bound by a historical process in reaction to stress that he cannot break from,
before being able to move onto seek support.
Further, the account portrays Jack as someone who places great importance on having
closeness with a few select people. He describes these few close others as those who he
would turn to for support at the relevant time in the aforementioned reaction to stress “I like
to have, as I said, a couple of very special people that I confide in, you know, if I can’t deal
with things myself”. This is also illustrated elsewhere when he says “there are a few people
who get to know what’s going on and who I share everything with and that’s really important
to me to have that support, definitely.” The account portrays Jack as someone who really
values having support from these few close others. This also seems to serve to exemplify that
although there are some people Jack who seeks support from, they are exclusive. Further, the
text seems to also function to portray these select others as being privileged to be a part of
Jack’s close network. This is illuminated in his repeated words “very special people”, as well
as when he says “who get to know” and “special people”, suggesting that Jack constructs
himself as someone for whom turning to others for support once he realises that he cannot
cope alone is a big deal. Jack constructs himself as someone who is careful and selective
about who he confides in for support.
The narrative portrays Jack’s experience of becoming a parent for the second time as
a stressful occasion, as well as illustrating the manner in which he coped with this. The
16
account depicts Jack as having had expectations of second-time parenthood that were
different to his experiences of what happened when his second child was born “when uhh
Henry was first born, I think maybe we both assumed that because we’d done it before we
would just know what to do”. The text portrays these differences from Jack’s expectations to
include his feelings “I think we were misguided to think ‘oh, because we’ve done this once
before, we won’t experience any of that’”. He constructs himself as someone who felt
unexpectedly vulnerable and anxious after Henry’s birth:
you’ve been through this incredible life changing experience of birth and now
suddenly here you are at home feeling quite lonely and vulnerable and nobody
can quite relate and you’re supposed to just get on with it so it’s quite an isolating,
anxiety-inducing time
The text depicts the birth of their second child as an extraordinary and transformative
event, which seems to serve to make a large contrast with its description of Jack’s low and
negative feelings following this event. It also seems to serve to portray Jack as being alone
when experiencing these feelings and having no one to turn to despite Claire undergoing the
same situation with him. This appears to additionally emphasise the helplessness of his
emotions after the birth. In addition, Jack illustrates his aloneness further when he says
“Claire’s time is absolutely taken up now with breastfeeding and having to be with the baby”,
showing that Claire was not very available during this period of time either. It seems as
though Jack had to cope alone with these unexpected feelings after the birth of their second
child, which is illustrated in the following story (see Table 17):
17
Table 17

The Abstract conveys that the narrative is about having the same experience each time
Jack and Claire have a new child, although the Orientation rushes to clarify that more
children are not in their current future plans, suggesting that this is not an immediate concern.
The ensuing Evaluation moves onto illustrate the meaning of the same experience occurring,
about a chemical change happening and its impact on emotions. The use of this meaning with
Jack’s words “you can’t help but just be” seems to function to remove choice, appearing to
portray Jack as not having control over his reaction to the birth of their second child.
18
The subsequent Orientation seems to serve to support the Abstract by depicting that
Jack’s manner of coping after Henry’s birth was the same way in which he coped after
Shane’s birth. The events describe the actual coping strategy of sitting alone in the bath tub
for a while. The ensuing and interrupting Evaluation portrays the meaning of this to be that it
allowed Jack to cut off from these changes and emotions to feel soothed. The events continue
after this Evaluation, describing that Jack leaves the bath tub, and this leads to the outcome of
the narrative that he is now able to manage with these changes. The final Evaluation depicts
the meaning of these Complicating Actions and Resolution to be a positive way of coping
following the birth of a child. This appears to portray Jack as being able to self-reliantly cope
with difficult feelings directly related to becoming a parent of a second child. Jack seems to
construct himself as someone who is able to self-soothe and is able to manage considerable
stress by himself.
Despite this construction of his sense of self, the account also seems to portray Jack as
someone who would like to be supported during such difficult times, which is illustrated
when he says “sometimes that’s nice when somebody else will notice that and actually then
draw it out of me and say ‘is there something that you are thinking about’ or ‘is something
going on?’ and then I would share” and “I would hope maybe that Claire would notice that
something was up”. Jack describes how he wishes to be noticed when feeling stressed and
have support offered for him to then disclose what is going on. The text appears to convey
Jack as someone who would like to be noticed without having to actively seek support
himself during stressful times, especially by Claire. Nevertheless, this does not seem to
always be possible considering Claire’s unavailability and preoccupation with their second
child during this time. Therefore, the account portrays Jack as gaining support from sources
other than those he would normally gain it from, such as from a larger crowd as is illustrated
in the following extract:
19
all our friends and neighbours were really really lovely during that first two
weeks, they all brought around food, um… sent cards so again it’s just that sense
that there are people out there, that there is that network of support if you need it,
which was really nice
The text describes the role that people played in providing support, such as bringing
food and sending cards. It is portrayed as giving Jack a comforting sense of having a support
network that he could draw on should he want it. This meaning is further elaborated when
Jack says “it’s just nice to feel that people care and that people are out there and you can
forget that because you do feel so isolated and vulnerable and tired, it’s good to, to have that
reassurance.” It portrays Jack as feeling comforted, cared for and thought about by people
other than Claire during a time when he felt low and exhausted from a source other than his
“couple of very special people”.
In contrast, the account illustrates that Jack drew support from those he would not
normally seek it from and who were there offering it to him, something the text depicts that
he wished for. This suggests that the account conveys Jack as being in such need for support
during the stressful event of becoming a parent for the second time and as being unable to
seek it from Claire due to her being unavailable, that he felt comforted by those outside of his
usual special confidants.
Jack’s construction of his couple relationship after the second child. When Jack
spoke about his couple relationship, he tells stories about support during times of need. This
is illustrated in the following narrative (see Table 18):
20
Table 18

This narrative is relayed in response to being asked about a time when Jack was on his
own and feeling stressed. The Abstract conveys that the story will be about such an occasion.
The following Orientation provides the background to this stressful time by describing
21
situations when Jack arrives at the train station and there are announcements of considerable
train delays which lead to him to have concerns about his ability to get to work on time. Since
this forms the background to this particular story, it suggests that this is likely to have taken
place on multiple occasions.
The ensuing Evaluation is that these events cause him to feel “very anxious”, which
seem to portrays Jack as someone who is greatly impacted upon negatively by happenings
which are out of his control when they impede with his ability to get to work on time. It
functions to set the scene for the stressful occasion that the Abstract conveys that this
narrative is about. This seems to function to highlight the previous Evaluation of it provoking
a great deal of anxiety.
The story continues with another Orientation, which makes it clear that this happened
a short while ago, further emphasising that these events and consequent impact on Jack’s
feeling are not an irregular occurrence.
The subsequent Complicating Action describes Jack’s actions of reaching to Claire
for support via text message. The story moves onto another Evaluation which conveys the
meaning of this event to be the ability to share what is happening to Jack. The story seems to
start to wind down until I ask for more meaning about his support-seeking action. The
narrative picks back up again by moving onto more events. Jack describes the contents of the
text message and Claire’s supportive actions in response, which portray her as being
supportive in a practical sense – as doing as much as she could to help Jack from where she is.
The Complicating Action also depicts her supportive remark once there was nothing more
that she could do, conveying her as being emotionally supportive to Jack.
The ensuing Resolution portrays the meaning of Claire’s practical and emotional help,
which depicts Jack as feeling supported and not alone in this stressful situation. This is in
22
spite of the ensuing Orientation which serves to further emphasise these comforted feelings
as it clarifies that Claire was not physically present with him at the time.
Jack constructs his sense of his couple relationship as one where he is able to share his
stressful feelings, as well as one which provides him with support and a sense of not being
alone even when he physically is. This sense of his couple relationship as supportive is
further illustrated in the following extract:
it feels like she’s an extension of me, that that’s really stuff that we deal with
together as a team. So it’s our problem rather than just my problem. It is that
sense of a problem shared is a problem halved
The text conveys Claire as being a part of Jack, which seems to suggest that Jack is
never alone during times of need. It also appears to indicate that when Jack experiences
difficulties, they are also experienced by Claire as she is a part of him. The text portrays this
to mean that consequently the problem is dealt by both of them, portraying Jack as always
being supported by Claire during times of distress. This seems to further construct his sense
of their couple relationship as supportive and as a place where he does not feel alone.
Jack also speaks about spending time together with Claire, and this is illustrated in the
following story (see Table 19):
Table 19

23

The Abstract of this narrative portrays that it is about the good times spent together
over the recent Christmas holiday, with the ensuing Orientation setting the scene of the story
as taking place in Brighton which they visited for 24 hours. The Evaluation interrupts to
convey meaning which is that it is a yearly tradition, before the story clarifies that Jack’s
mother went with them and looked after Shane through an Orientation. This second part of
the Orientation also functions to set the scene for the following Complicating Action which
describes that Shane stayed in the hotel with his grandmother while Jack, Claire and Henry
went out together. Further Orientation situates Henry as being in the wrap asleep, as though
he were not present in the story, and as though only Jack and Claire were. This element
serves to address the part of the Abstract which asks for a story about a time that Jack and
Claire spent together, indicating that the story illustrates that even if the baby is present, it
still counts as time together for the couple relationship.
24
The subsequent Complicating Action describes what Jack and Claire did together,
which functions to illuminate the ensuing Resolution that they were reconnecting as a couple,
further illustrating Henry’s presence as being minimised. The final element of Evaluation
provides the meaning to these events and to the outcome, as well as supporting what the
Abstract conveys the narrative is about – that it was a really enjoyable time.
The first half of the story appears to build up to the second part, which portrays the
alone time Jack and Claire spent together and what it meant for their couple relationship. This
narrative appears to portray their couple relationship as managing and prevailing around
having had their second child by finding a way to honour their yearly tradition of
reconnection at Brighton. This seems to construct Jack’s sense of his couple relationship as
one that is important enough to make time for outside of parenting and its demands. This is
further illustrated when he says: “I think it was just about reconnecting with Claire and
having that time to you know, just be ourselves again”, “it means we get to connect and just
talk about us” and “rather than just feel like you’re constantly stuck being parents all the
time”. These accounts serve to provide further illumination into the time Jack and Claire
spent together in Brighton, conveying them as being two people in a couple relationship in
contrast to merely being two people who are parents together. This further constructs Jack’s
sense of his couple relationship as one that is valuable enough to invest time in. It also
constructs his sense of his couple relationship as meaning that it is actually a couple
relationship outside of parenthood.
Narrative analysis summary. Jack constructs himself as someone who is
involuntarily self-reliant in his response to stress, and as someone who then agentically
decides to seek support from others. Jack constructs himself as being bound by a historical
process in reaction to stress that he cannot break from, before being able to move onto seek
support.
25
Nevertheless, Jack constructs himself as someone who is able to self-soothe and
manage considerable stress by himself when he became a parent for the second time.
However, it also portrays him as someone who would have liked to have been offered support
during this immensely stressful time, especially from Claire who was unavailable to do so.
Nonetheless, Jack constructs himself as someone who felt supported by the helpful actions
offered by others outside of his usual confidants and so as someone who will draw comfort
during times of need from other sources when his normal sources of support are unavailable.
Jack constructs his sense of his couple relationship as one which is supportive during times of
need, as well as one which provides him with a sense of not being alone even when he
physically is. In addition, the text portrays Jack’s sense of his couple relationship as
managing and prevailing around having had their second child, and constructs it as one that is
important enough to make time for, outside of parenting and its demands, and which thus has
meaning outside of parenthood.

The post transition to second-time fatherhood appeared first on My Assignment Online.

Expert Help With This Assignment — On Your Terms