From Trust to Timetables: Parental Leave and the Temporal Pressures of Late Capitalism

Abstract Drawing on longitudinal interviews with first-time parents in Sweden, this article analyzes how decommodified family time becomes entangled with temporal norms of efficiency, acceleration, and scheduling in late capitalism. Prenatal hopes for relational depth confront postnatal everyday life where these temporal logics reorganize intimacy, weaken the conditions for reciprocal relational practice, and render trust within couple relationships increasingly fragile. Introducing trust capital as an existential and relational resource, the article conceptualizes how trust is sustained or eroded under temporal pressure. The article shows how parents’ lived negotiations of time and care shape the experience of the welfare state’s existential legitimacy.