Childhood Observation
Introduction
I decided to do my qualitative paper on “How involved are fathers in interacting with their children” I went to the local mall on a Sunday, knowing that families are more likely to take a trip here on a weekend oppose to weekdays as parents may be at work and children may be home or at school. The setting I choose for this study was the build-a-bear workshop store. Build a bear workshop is very popular toy customization store, located in the local mall. This store is always busy with lots of children and their parents having fun building bears or simply purchasing toys. I walked into the store and started to walk around for a bit to get a feel for the setting and observe the people in the store. My criteria for this study: …show more content…
an interesting male subject with children that will be easy to observe and aid in responding to my research question effectively. I eventually, picked out my subject to observe; a Caucasian male, about the age of 45-50 with 3 children and a wife. Two of the children were females about 5 and 7 and the last baby, whom I could not identify the sex, was in the stroller. My aim is to observe how my subject interacts with his children at the store.
Instruments
Instruments used to collect data were: a book and a pen for taking notes during my observation. This will help recall all the information before typing it. I also used my phone to take pictures during the observation. The pictures will help the reader visualize the scenario more easily and bring it into reality.
Method
I started to pay close attention to the father’s movements, his non verbal and verbal and body language. I was also very interested in his interactions with his children during the store trip. My first observation was that he was very distant, he was standing far away from the children in the store by himself and he wasn’t communicating with his children at all. He was not involved in the process of picking out toys for the children or helping them with building the bear. He was not smiling and did not seem happy to be there. I watched him for a few more minutes in the store as he stood still in the corner looking around. After awhile, he walked out of the store while pushing the stroller with the third baby. He stood in front of the store, and looked at other people walking by and also the other surrounding stores nearby. At this moment, his facial expression communicated boredom, sadness, disinterested or maybe even tired as evident in my pictures of him. I caught a picture of him yawning while he stood outside the store. It was interesting to me that the entire time he was outside, he never looked in the store to monitor the children or at least smile at them. Eventually his children and his wife came out of the store and they walked away.
Findings
This observation clearly answers my question of a father’s involvement in their children activities by observing a father at the mall with his children.
This father was clearly not involved at all with his children as they had fun at the store, his interaction with them was very poor and he seem to be not interested in being there at all. He looked like he would rather be somewhere else. This observation is posing a bigger concern for society, especially, if there are a lot more fathers not getting involved with their children; this may create a disconnecting with their father. Children need both parents to feel loved and cared for and not just the attention of their mothers.
Limitation
I observed this family in one setting alone. Observations need to be completed on different fathers’ interactions with their children in different settings. The father at the mall may have been uninvolved at the mall but he could be very involved at other settings like a soccer game etc. Also, a lot of factors may have caused him to not interact with the children and that can also be the reason for his actions. Other extraneous factors were not considered.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to state based on my observation that fathers are less involved with their children during mall trips. Further research is needed to answer the research question in depth; one observation of a father cannot be applied to the general
population.
I decided to do my qualitative paper on “How involved are fathers in interacting with their children” I went to the local mall on a Sunday, knowing that families are more likely to take a trip here on a weekend oppose to weekdays as parents may be at work and children may be home or at school. The setting I choose for this study was the build-a-bear workshop store. Build a bear workshop is very popular toy customization store, located in the local mall. This store is always busy with lots of children and their parents having fun building bears or simply purchasing toys. I walked into the store and started to walk around for a bit to get a feel for the setting and observe the people in the store. My criteria for this study: …show more content…
an interesting male subject with children that will be easy to observe and aid in responding to my research question effectively. I eventually, picked out my subject to observe; a Caucasian male, about the age of 45-50 with 3 children and a wife. Two of the children were females about 5 and 7 and the last baby, whom I could not identify the sex, was in the stroller. My aim is to observe how my subject interacts with his children at the store.
Instruments
Instruments used to collect data were: a book and a pen for taking notes during my observation. This will help recall all the information before typing it. I also used my phone to take pictures during the observation. The pictures will help the reader visualize the scenario more easily and bring it into reality.
Method
I started to pay close attention to the father’s movements, his non verbal and verbal and body language. I was also very interested in his interactions with his children during the store trip. My first observation was that he was very distant, he was standing far away from the children in the store by himself and he wasn’t communicating with his children at all. He was not involved in the process of picking out toys for the children or helping them with building the bear. He was not smiling and did not seem happy to be there. I watched him for a few more minutes in the store as he stood still in the corner looking around. After awhile, he walked out of the store while pushing the stroller with the third baby. He stood in front of the store, and looked at other people walking by and also the other surrounding stores nearby. At this moment, his facial expression communicated boredom, sadness, disinterested or maybe even tired as evident in my pictures of him. I caught a picture of him yawning while he stood outside the store. It was interesting to me that the entire time he was outside, he never looked in the store to monitor the children or at least smile at them. Eventually his children and his wife came out of the store and they walked away.
Findings
This observation clearly answers my question of a father’s involvement in their children activities by observing a father at the mall with his children.
This father was clearly not involved at all with his children as they had fun at the store, his interaction with them was very poor and he seem to be not interested in being there at all. He looked like he would rather be somewhere else. This observation is posing a bigger concern for society, especially, if there are a lot more fathers not getting involved with their children; this may create a disconnecting with their father. Children need both parents to feel loved and cared for and not just the attention of their mothers.
Limitation
I observed this family in one setting alone. Observations need to be completed on different fathers’ interactions with their children in different settings. The father at the mall may have been uninvolved at the mall but he could be very involved at other settings like a soccer game etc. Also, a lot of factors may have caused him to not interact with the children and that can also be the reason for his actions. Other extraneous factors were not considered.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to state based on my observation that fathers are less involved with their children during mall trips. Further research is needed to answer the research question in depth; one observation of a father cannot be applied to the general
population.