“The Natural Order of Things” and State Policies: Parenting in Eastern Germany after 1989. Notions of kinship as “the natural order of things” are embodied in legal codes and appropriated during the course of life. On the basis of qualitative data, this paper explores the connection between state policies and changing individual notions and practices through the example of parenting in eastern Germany after 1989. Confronted with new state ideals of parenting, eastern Germans appropriate, resist, or adapted their concepts and practices according to age and gender. Although post-socialist changes are often interpreted as modernization, these data point to more ambivalent processes thereby also questioning the formerly assumed “great divide” between East and West. The presented examples also highlight the importance of “small” local state actors rather than “big” welfare policies.