Single Mothering from Home: Filipino Solo Mothers, Work, Care, and Schooling During COVID-19

Article information

Andrada-Poa, M. R. J., Jabal, R. F., & Cleofas, J. V. (2022). Single mothering during the COVID-19 pandemic: a remote photovoice project among Filipino single mothers working from home. Community, Work & Family, 25(2), 260–278. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2021.2006608

What this study is about

COVID-19 changed home life and work life at the same time. For many families, the home became an office, classroom, kitchen, playground, and care space all at once. This study asks: How did Filipino single mothers experience mothering while working from home during the pandemic?

The researchers focused on single mothers because their situation is distinct. In many households, parenting tasks are shared between two parents. But single mothers often carry the emotional, financial, and practical responsibilities of parenting with less partner-based support. During COVID-19, these responsibilities intensified because mothers had to work, care for children, manage the household, and support distance learning inside the same confined home environment. 

The study uses an ecological perspective, which means it looks at mothering not only as an individual act, but as something shaped by the environment: pandemic restrictions, work-from-home arrangements, family support, schooling systems, cultural expectations, and time. 

What the researchers did

This was a remote photovoice study with 15 Filipino single mothers who were working from home and living with their child or children. Photovoice is a qualitative method where participants take photographs to represent their experiences, then discuss the meaning of those images in interviews. 

Because of pandemic restrictions, the researchers adapted photovoice for remote data collection. The mothers used their own smartphone cameras. For three workdays, they took one photo per day answering the question: “What was your highlight for the day as a single mother working from home?” They also wrote short descriptions of the photos. Afterwards, the researchers conducted one-on-one online interviews using the photos as prompts. 

The article’s Figure 1 on page 8 visually explains the “following a thread” analytic process: the researchers began with interview/photo codes, identified promising threads, built a data repertoire using interview excerpts and photographs, then connected threads into subthemes, themes, and the core category. 

The central finding: overlapping motherhood roles in confinement

The core category of the study is: performing overlapping roles of motherhood in confinement during a pandemic. 

In simple terms, single mothers were not only “working from home.” They were mothering, earning, cooking, cleaning, teaching, monitoring, budgeting, and caring for extended family members—often within the same day, same room, and same body.

Four themes explain how this happened.

1) Increased presence at home

For many participants, working from home created more opportunities to be physically and emotionally present for their children. Before the pandemic, office work and commuting took time away from home. During work-from-home, mothers could bond with children, cook meals, attend to daily needs, and witness small milestones. 

This was not presented as purely easy or romantic. But many mothers valued the chance to become more present. One mother described how she had previously missed birthdays and ordinary home moments, but during work-from-home she could ask her daughter what she wanted for dinner and make more effort as a mother. 

The photos also make this vivid. Figure 2 on page 10 includes one photo of a mother bonding with her child’s stuffed toys before bedtime, and another of food being prepared before work. These images show how working from home allowed single mothers to re-enter ordinary care routines that were harder to perform before the pandemic. 

2) Shared motherhood during confinement

Although the participants were single mothers, many did not mother entirely alone. Some lived in extended-family households where siblings, parents, and other relatives helped with childcare, groceries, financial support, monitoring, and emotional care. 

This matters in the Filipino context, where extended family support often plays a major role in childrearing. The study shows that during confinement, this support became even more visible. A sister might help financially. A sibling might go to the grocery. A father might provide food or health reminders. 

But shared motherhood also went both ways. Some single mothers were not only being supported by relatives; they were also caring for siblings and parents. They monitored older family members’ health behaviors, helped financially, and organized family life. 

Figure 3 on page 12 shows this shared family ecology: one photo features a healthy breakfast provided by a father for his daughter’s family, while another shows siblings preparing a birthday dinner for their mother. These images show that mothering during confinement was embedded in wider family care networks. 

3) Work and work management as an act of mothering

For the mothers in this study, work was not separate from mothering. Work was part of mothering because paid employment allowed them to provide for their children. Many described their jobs as something they had to protect and perform well because they were the main provider. 

Some mothers preferred working from home because it removed commuting stress, reduced expenses, and gave them more time and energy for children. Others struggled with the blurred boundaries between work and family. Meetings, cooking, childcare, household chores, and recovery time often collided. 

The mothers responded by creating strategies: setting schedules, defining workspaces, telling family members not to disturb them during work hours, and protecting recovery time after their shift. In Figure 4 on page 13, one photo shows a mother’s almost-completed house—symbolizing what her work made possible—while another shows a designated home workspace arranged to reduce distractions. 

The key insight: work-from-home became a mothering practice when mothers used it to provide, remain present, and manage survival.

4) Single mothers as second teachers

Because schools shifted to distance education, single mothers also became “second teachers.” They monitored attendance, helped with modules, explained lessons, checked assignments, and supported children who struggled with online learning. 

This role was meaningful but also demanding. Mothers had to understand new educational platforms and routines while continuing to work and manage the household. Some listened to their children’s classes so they could guide them later. Others sat beside their children while working so they could answer questions in real time. 

Figure 5 on page 15 captures this vividly: one photo shows a mother’s work laptop beside her child’s study setup, while another shows a child working on educational modules. These images make visible the educational labor transferred into homes during the pandemic. 

Bottom line

This study shows that single mothering during COVID-19 was not simply a story of burden, nor was it simply a story of empowerment. It was both. Work-from-home and confinement created stress, blurred boundaries, and new responsibilities. But over time, they also opened opportunities for intimacy, shared family care, stronger mother-child involvement, and new forms of mothering agency. 

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Policy/practice recommendations

1. Keep work-from-home options available for solo parents
   Employers should consider flexible or hybrid work arrangements beyond the pandemic, especially for single parents in childrearing stages. 
2. Design workplace policies around care realities
   Workplaces should recognize that single mothers may need protected breaks, flexible scheduling, reasonable meeting hours, and support for family emergencies.
3. Support the whole family ecology
   Helping professionals can design interventions that include extended family members, since shared motherhood and co-parenting by relatives were important resources. 
4. Schools should monitor single parents’ distance-learning burden
   When children learn from home, schools should check not only student engagement but also parental strain, especially among solo parents. 
5. Treat mothering as essential work
   Policy and organizational programs should recognize unpaid care, schooling support, household management, and emotional labor as real work that sustains families.

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Glossary of key terms

• Single mothering — The everyday work of raising, caring for, disciplining, supporting, and providing for children as a mother without an active co-parenting partner. 
• Work from home (WFH) — A work arrangement where paid labor is performed from the home rather than a separate workplace. In this study, WFH reshaped mothering roles. 
• Photovoice — A participatory qualitative method where participants take photos to represent their lived experiences and discuss these images in interviews or group discussions. 
• Remote photovoice — An adapted form of photovoice using smartphones, online submissions, and videoconferencing instead of in-person meetings. 
• Ecological perspective — A framework that understands human experiences as shaped by interacting personal, family, social, cultural, economic, environmental, and historical factors. 
• Mothering agency — A mother’s capacity to act, decide, care, provide, and shape family life within the constraints and resources available to her. 
• Shared motherhood — The distribution of mothering/care tasks across other family members, such as grandparents, siblings, and relatives. 
• Work-family balance — The ongoing effort to manage paid work and family responsibilities without one completely overwhelming the other. 
• Second teacher — A caregiving role that emerged during distance education, where mothers supported children’s schooling at home by monitoring, tutoring, and helping with modules. 
• Following a thread — A qualitative integration strategy where researchers trace promising ideas across different data sources—in this case, interviews, photo descriptions, and photographs.