Making Sense of my Child: Grounded Images of Children

Abstract

How people behave as parents is affected not only by their abstract ideas about children in general but also by their everyday experience of looking after each particular child. In fact, in terms of the assumptions about family life held by the couples in my group, it could be argued that, for them, this biographical ‘knowledge’ was crucial. The stress which these parents laid upon ‘understanding’ their children, and upon family life as a learning and developing situation, meant that their ‘grounded’ images of children had an extremely influential effect on their behaviour.