Interview With My Father Essay

Jane D. Hull once said, “At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child 's success is the positive involvement of parents.” There is overwhelming evidence to support the connection between parenting and childhood development. As discussed in various class lectures, parenting styles play a major role in a child’s behavior and their ability to cope with challenging situations in the long run. In addition, childhood development is heavily influenced by biological components, such as genetics and temperament. While I understood these facts, I wasn’t able to fully grasp these concepts until I evaluated my own childhood through an interview with my father. He helped me to be able gain valuable insight into the way I was raised, my personal

I handle situations in a similar way as I did during my middle childhood, whether that be dealing with sadness, meeting new people, or getting out of my comfort zone. “We used to think you would be a model,” my dad reflected, “You were funny, entertaining, and you were always striking a pose.” I began to laugh after he said this because I can remember looking at old pictures of me and it always looked like I was at a photo shoot. You could see the confidence radiating from the picture. According to my dad’s feedback, I would have been considered to be an exuberant child. “You were outgoing, always had a huge group of friends, and you were never afraid to try new things.” It was shocking to hear him describe me at 6 years old and see how identical it is to how I am now. He went on to tell me that when I was upset I would withdraw from people and refuse to talk about whatever it was that was bothering me. Sometimes my emotions got the best of me and I would avoid confronting the issue head on. I thought this was a coping mechanism that I only recently started to do, but I learned from the interview that I have been doing this for years. My dad handles stress in a similar way and I believe that I may have unknowingly modeled this response. While I still withdraw occasionally, I have been striving to make improvements so that I may deal with problems

I considered not asking this because I believed that since I lost my mom at an early age, there could be no way our personalities were similar. Surprisingly, my dad said that my personality and temperament evenly reflected the both of them. He explained that I was like him in regards to my calm personality and the way I avoid confrontation. On the other hand, I am a social butterfly just like my mother was. I found this mind blowing and it helps to confirm the idea that temperament is heavily biologically based, but can be altered over time due to outside influences. The interview I conduced with my dad opened my eyes to the profound influence our upbringing, environment, and biological make up has on various aspects of our lives. Childhood development is easily molded and this overwhelmingly contributes to what kind of people we become as