18 years

1. As the program ends, what pathways does your child appear to be on in terms of physical, cognitive, social, emotional and moral development? To what extent could you have predicted these pathways based on what you knew of your child's earlier development? Angel has always loved to learn new things. Her cognitive development and emotional and moral development has never been in question due to Angel being very social. Angel has been very open with her feelings, as well as being there for all her friends’ feelings. Angel signed up for a Psychology class the first semester of her senior year. She really enjoyed the class, and talks about it often with me. Angel jokes that she's always acting as a therapist to one friend or another! After hearing this and knowing how caring Angel is, I almost could have predicted Angel becoming a counselor. The other career I see Angel doing is a foreign language teacher. Angel is very well rounded, she loves people and life. Angel and I get along great, and it’s comforting to know she still comes to me for help when things get rough.

2. Describe some specific ways in which you think your parenting mattered for your child’s development, based on evidence from the course regarding the contributions of parents to child development. When Angel was little around 6 or 8 she had an accident on her skateboard which caused her brain damage. My husband and I worked very hard long hours with Angel teaching her how to walk and talk again never doubting for a second that everything was going to be fine. We made sure to keep our home life as normal as possible, and had Angels friends over to see her. We never wanted Angel to feel she was different from other kids her age. Another time I feel my parenting played a huge part in Angels life is when she became a teen. Angel started to socialize more and go to parties where drinking and drugs were at. My husband and I stayed firm to our beliefs against drugs and drinking, we talked with Angel about situation that could arise as a teen. Angel did very well during this period in her life; she never got in trouble, and would come home at her curfew time. One time Angel decided not to call, I knew of a huge party that Angel’s friends were going to. But when Angel got home I found out she and a guy friend of hers had been doing community service. I feel by being a loving, firm, and firm again, caring parent allowed Angel to grow beautifully.

3. Describe some specific ways in which your child developed that appeared to be influenced by factors outside your control, such as genes, random environmental events or the general influence of contemporary middle-class American culture. When Angel was little she would get few if any colds, I feel this has to do with my genes. I never got sick as a child. Some other things I had no control over was the time I had to take a pay cut do to the economy. This really affected our family, for example, Angel had to drop some of the more expensive activities she participated in. Another thing out of my control is how curious and social Angel is. Angel wanted to know everything about everything; she was always making up games and finding new friends. I definitely feel this is genes, I was the same way as a child.