Abstract
A qualitative analysis concerned how dual-earner couples negotiated who took their children to and from a day nursery. Data from records and interviews conducted at a private day nursery in Tokyo from March to August, 2001 yielded the following major findings. Couples were classified into five types: (I) mother-centered; (II) couple-shared; (III) father-centered; (IV) dependent-on-maternal-grandmother type with subtypes (a) parents-grandmother and (b) mother-grandmother; and (V) hired babysitter type. These types corresponded to two different adjustment processes between couples. In the first process, most wives thought that parents should drop off and pick up children, and decided procedures after consultation with their husbands and leading this consultation. This process was observed among the II, III, and IV (a) couple types. In the second process, most wives thought that dropping off and picking up children was their job, and decided on this procedures without consulting with their husbands. This process was observed among the I, IV (b), and V couple types.
