She watches over her household

Family is a significant source and determinant of human wellbeing, and is a focus for researchers who believe that mothers are central to wellbeing. Some families are believed to fare better than others. Families led by mothers, motherled households, are constructed in research, public discourse and policy, as perilous places. Women and children in motherled households are depicted as suffering social isolation and material poverty. In this study I explore wellbeing in motherled households. My lived experience as nurse specialising in maternal, child and family health, and as a single mother, informs me, according to Judi Marshall's (1999) "life lived as inquiry". My thesis is a quest to story a version of those in motherled households which is rich and hopeful, contrasting with the monolithic, simplified and limited (and limiting) accounts of our humanity - versions of wellbeing and family displayed in research, policy and conversation. In contrast, women story wellbeing in unique, individual, and evolving ways. They value their families as sites of purpose, wellbeing and intentionality, versions of family and wellbeing not told elsewhere.