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Louisa and Dan
Louisa is an EU National from Germany, and has lived in the UK for 18 years. Dan is her husband – he is British East Asian. Both voted to Remain. The two main challenges for this couple have been keeping on top of the possible changes in Louisa’s status in the UK, and dealing with their baby, Ruby, who has turned into a very active toddler over the course of this difficult year.
Lee and Pete
Pete is a Leave voting father who lives with his wife and his Remain voting son Lee. To start with, Pete and Lee were able to have conversations and fairly civilised debates about Brexit – however, that has changed over the course of this year, and they have fallen into a pattern of avoiding politics altogether.
Rebecca and Hazel
Rebecca is a recently divorced single mum, juggling life and work, and keeping in regular contact with her mum Hazel, who sometimes helps out with childcare. Rebecca voted Remain and Hazel voted Leave – Rebecca has hinted that their relationship has been somewhat tumultuous in the past, and that this difference over Brexit has exacerbated these long-term fissures.
Our timeline is based on the findings of an ESRC funded project called ‘Brexit and Everyday Family Relationships’. In this project, we met and developed relationships with a diverse range of families, to explore how Brexit has affected family relationships over time. Our participants took part in interviews, kept diaries, recorded themselves watching television, and maintained contact with us through Whatsapp, Facebook, texts and email. The resulting stories reveal the ebbing and flowing of Brexit’s influence, and how it is experienced through, and managed alongside, a host of other challenges within everyday family life.
Disclaimer: The families and characters in the examples above are composites, assembled using real stories from real participants. Names and descriptions are fictional, and not intended to relate to any one person.