In this paper we examine how parents’ access to resources—financial but also related resources, including cultural and social capital—influence how they approach digital media in their own and their children’s lives. We detail 2 case study families, the Apaus (a low-income Ghanaian-British family) and the Thiebaults (a high-income French family living in London). Both families have sons who are learning to code, but how they pursue this interest and how they are supported by their parents illustrate how parental access to resources influences connected learning experiences. Contra the theories of Annette Lareau, we show how both families are actively turning to digital media to “cultivate” their sons’ interests, at great costs relative to their very different resources, but that this cultivation may well be unequally converted into opportunities in the future.
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