Abstract
This paper reports from a four-country qualitative pilot project investigating parent networks in England, Austria, Denmark and Portugal, with particular attention to moments of transition and shift in parenting journeys, and the role of digital communications at such times. We write from a project which adopted an in-depth qualitative approach to family and life-course oresearch in digital societies, tailoring it to the investigation of transition and adaptation, especially, but not solely restricted through the experiences of living through the pandemic (see here Wood & Bennett, 2022). Locating our work within the broader context of the sociology of parenthood, we paid attention to moments of transition and shift in parents' journeys-crucible moments-including formal transitions (such as becoming parents or the passage of a child into high school), or through informal transitions (such as critical illness in the household, or migration for instance – see Andreasson & Herz, 2021). Our set of 16 in-depth, qualitative interviews with parents investigated the complex role of digital communication at transitional moments, including formal and informal transitions as just noted, but also encompassing more apparently low-key but potentially disruptive and turbulent moments in parenting – for instance, a first fever for a child, significant struggles with infant feeding, complex family conversations around using screens, and many other similar moments in parenting.