SOCIOLOGY 1201 GROUP PROJECT INTERVIEW WITH PARENTS

In advance: Find a family, with children of any age, in which you are able to get the cooperation of the adult members of the family in completing this interview. Try to find someone else than your own family, and try to interview all adults in the family. If you can't, one interview would be okay. Notice that I have included slightly different options if the family you interview is a step family or a single-parent family. My recommendation is that you not take notes during your interview but write up your notes immediately afterwards.Use the following questions as a guideline, but feel free to follow up on themes raised by the people you interview. When you write up your interview, lead off with a basic description of the family--ages, genders, previous marriages, etc.

1. Please tell me a little bit about your family--how long you've been married or been partners(or how long you've been a single parent), names and ages of your kids, how long you've been living in your present community, what kind of work you and/or your spouse do?

2. What have been the biggest satisfactions of family life for you? What have been the biggest challenges?

3. How realistic a view of family life did you have before you got into it? How old were you?

4. How would you compare your family to the family you grew up in?

5. What have been the greatest challenges of parenting? Are there certain ages in which your children have been harder or easier for you? What about when your first child was born--was that a difficult adjustment? Please tell me about it.

6.a. For partners (as opposed to single parents). Do you and your spouse/partner have different roles in relation to your children? If so, do these differences relate to sex roles? Has this been a point of conflict or compromise in your marriage?Have your views on this changed in any way over the years?
OR
6.b. For stepparents: Do you and your spouse/partner have different roles in relation to your children? If so, do these differences relate to sex roles? How do you see the role of a step-parent?
OR
6c. For single parents--What do you think are the most difficult things about being a single parent? Are there ways you have found to lessen those difficulties?

7. What about work? Do you(did you) ever feel a conflict between work and family? Would you rate your employer as being understanding of the needs of family life, and why? Do you find yourself sometimes having to choose between the demands of your job and the needs of your family?

8. For couples or for single parents who had a spouse when their children were young: Did both you and your spouse work when your children were young? How did you handle childcare during those years, and how did it work out for you?

9. How far do you live from your nearest relatives, do you see them often, and have they been any kind of support(emotional or practical) in your family life? Are there other people outside your family that have provided important support to your family?

10. What if you were giving advice to people thinking about becoming parents? What advice would you give?

IN YOUR GROUPS:

1. Introduce the family you interviewed to the members of your group. Were there any surprises in your interview(s)? If so, share them with the group.

2. Did the people you interviewed identify pretty similar satisfactions and challenges in parenting, or did you discover some major variations?

3. What did people say about becoming parents? Was it a big adjustment? In what ways?

4. What about single parents or step-parents (if any, among your interviews)? What was different in their responses?

5. What about advice? Did the people you interviewed find this an easy question to answer? Did they seem to have strong feelings about what they had learned from their family experiences? Were there common themes in the advice people gave?

6. Did members of your group find this an interesting assignment? Did you have a hard time coming up with a family to interview? Did you feel like you were invading people's privacy? Did the people you interviewed seem to like talking about their family experiences?