Abstract

The concept of «otherness» is integral to the understanding of identities, as people construct roles for themselves in relation to an «other» (Husserl, 1960). In this sense the definitions of self and other are complementary, interrelated, and dependent (Theunissen, 1984). The definitions of self and other emerge in talk as one positions oneself, and simultaneously the other, in a moral plane of ideas and practices. Through an analysis of video-recorded parents' interviews and spontaneous conversations with researchers, this article analyzes parents' presentation of themselves and their family through the use of social comparison with «others». It examines the possible «others» that are being evoked and the categories that are being used in the comparison. This article illustrates how through these comparisons parents define their family ethos and present themselves as moral actors.