This collection examines ideas of responsibility and their impact upon the family and upon the way family law is conceived and enforced. It explores the concept of responsibility by examining parental responsibility for children and expectations we have of the responsibilities that children have (or should have) within families.

Chapter 1 Introduction: Conceptualising Family Responsibility, Jo Bridgeman, Heather Keating; Part 1 The Nature of Family Responsibility; Chapter 2 The Right to Responsible Parents, Michael Freeman; Chapter 3 Together Forever? The Rights and Responsibilities of Adult Children and their Parents, Jonathan Herring; Chapter 4 Being a Responsible Mother: New Labour Policy Discourses versus Lone Mothers¿ Contextualised Accounts, Harriet Churchill; Chapter 5 Overview, John Williams; Part 2 Constructions of Children¿s Responsibilities; Chapter 6 Responsible Children and Children¿s Responsibilities? Sibling Caretaking and Babysitting by School-age Children, Virginia Morrow; Chapter 7 Being Responsible, Becoming Responsible and Having Responsibility Thrust upon Them: Constructing the `Responsibility¿ of Children and Parents, Heather Keating; Chapter 8 Responsibility, Children and Childhood, Adrian James; Part 3 Shifting Conceptions of Family Responsibilities; Chapter 9 Engaging Fathers? Responsibility, Law and the `Problem of Fatherhood¿, Richard Collier; Chapter 10 Responsible Fathers: Paternity, the Blood Tie and Family Responsibility, Craig Lind; Chapter 11 Being Responsible: `Good¿ Parents and Children¿s Autonomy, Wade Amanda; Part 4 Family, Responsibility and the Law; Chapter 12 Parental Responsibility, Responsible Parenting and Legal Regulation, Bridgeman Jo; Chapter 13 Family Law and Family Responsibility, Alison Diduck; Chapter 14 Conclusion: Regulating for Responsibility in an Age of Complex Families, Craig Lind;