Oldman's argument is that family inrecent years has become a less significant frame of reference forchildren because of the increase in the amount of 'child work' done byadults outside of the family. A Marxist analysis of adult/child relations ispossible here because of the widening range of activities undertaken byadults for children outside of the family, what he refers to as a processof 'defamilialisation'. Child work thus refers to the kinds of commodifiedactivities carried out by professionals, including non-family forms of careand a plethora of leisure and educational activities open to children,provided by non-family members.