Social science inquiries of American agriculture have long recognized the inextricability of farm households and farm businesses. Efforts to train and support farmers, however, often privilege business realm indicators over social issues. Such framings implicitly position households as disconnected from farm stress or farm success. This article argues that systematically tracing the pathways between farm households and farm operations represents a potentially powerful inroad towards identifying effective support interventions. We argue childcare arrangements are an underrecognized challenge through which farm household dynamics directly influence agricultural production. We draw on interviews and focus group data with farmers in the Northeastern United States to understand how farmer–parents access and negotiate childcare. Farmer–parents value raising children on farms, but express reluctance to expect current or future labor from them. Years with young children thus represent an especially vulnerable phase during a farm’s trajectory. We identify and analyze social, economic, and cognitive pathways through which childcare impacts farm operations. Social pathways include relationship tensions and gendered on-farm divisions of labor; economic pathways include farm layout and structure; cognitive pathways include how farmers think about and plan for their operations. Explicitly acknowledging such issues can better equip farmer–parents to anticipate and plan for conflicting demands on their time.

中文翻译：

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协商育儿对农场的无形劳动力和多维影响

美国农业的社会科学调查早就认识到农户和农场企业的不可分割性。然而，培训和支持农民的努力往往将商业领域指标置于社会问题之上。这种框架隐含地将家庭定位为与农场压力或农场成功脱节。本文认为，系统地追踪农户和农场经营之间的路径代表了确定有效支持干预措施的潜在有力途径。我们认为，儿童保育安排是一个未被充分认识的挑战，农户动态通过它直接影响农业生产。我们利用与美国东北部农民的访谈和焦点小组数据来了解农民父母如何获得和协商儿童保育。农民父母重视在农场抚养孩子，但表示不愿期待他们现在或未来的劳动力。因此，有小孩的岁月代表了农场发展轨迹中一个特别脆弱的阶段。我们识别和分析儿童保育影响农场经营的社会、经济和认知途径。社会途径包括关系紧张和性别化的农场分工；经济途径包括农场布局和结构；认知途径包括农民如何思考和计划他们的经营。明确承认这些问题可以更好地使农民父母能够预测和计划冲突的时间需求。因此，有小孩的岁月代表了农场发展轨迹中一个特别脆弱的阶段。我们识别和分析儿童保育影响农场经营的社会、经济和认知途径。社会途径包括关系紧张和性别化的农场分工；经济途径包括农场布局和结构；认知途径包括农民如何思考和计划他们的经营。明确承认这些问题可以更好地使农民父母能够预测和计划冲突的时间需求。因此，有小孩的岁月代表了农场发展轨迹中一个特别脆弱的阶段。我们识别和分析儿童保育影响农场经营的社会、经济和认知途径。社会途径包括关系紧张和性别化的农场分工；经济途径包括农场布局和结构；认知途径包括农民如何思考和计划他们的经营。明确承认这些问题可以更好地使农民父母能够预测和计划冲突的时间需求。认知途径包括农民如何思考和计划他们的经营。明确承认这些问题可以更好地使农民父母能够预测和计划冲突的时间需求。认知途径包括农民如何思考和计划他们的经营。明确承认这些问题可以更好地使农民父母能够预测和计划冲突的时间需求。