The purpose of this study is to listen to the experiences of mothers and fathers who had experienced play interactions with their 2]year]old infant children. It was tried to identify what joys and difficulties they had, what relations they had made wi...
The purpose of this study is to listen to the experiences of mothers and fathers who had experienced play interactions with their 2]year]old infant children. It was tried to identify what joys and difficulties they had, what relations they had made with their infant children, and what they had hoped while they had experienced play interactions with their children. Through their live experiences, it was tried to understand the questions regarding the context of play interaction experiences of parents with infant children. To achieve such research goals, the detailed research problems were set as follows. First, what does the play interaction experience with two]year]old infant child mean to the mother Second, what does the play interaction experience with two]year]old infant child mean to the father
To answer the aforementioned research problems, the researcher used the narrative research method by Clandinin & Connelly (2000), which is the optimal research method to understand the life and experience of parents in depth as it reveals the voices of parents with infant children without fragments. The subjects of this study were the parents with two]year]old children, the number of which were 8 in total composed of 4 fathers and 4 mothers. Data have been collected for 1 year from March in 2011 to March in 2012. To collect data, play interactions between parents and children at home were videotaped and then interview was performed while the videotape was being played. The collected materials were interview materials which were recorded and then transcribed and researcher fs note. To analyze the materials, the researcher read the collected raw data repeatedly, coded them in narrative, described the experiences of participants, analyzed and interpreted similarity and differences and then induced the meaning of their lives.
The followings are the results of this study.
First, mothers provided intended play experiences to stimulate the growth and development of their children using the efficient medium of play, while experiencing play interactions with their infant children. Basically, mothers experienced play interactions with observation, sensitivity and reactions and tried to be a helper to help them to achieve the task of growth and development. Mothers made efforts to achieve the goal of ?gWell?]playing Mother?h through play interactions. Mothers expected their efforts to be perfect and hoped to be a perfect mother. Mothers showed expectations on the role of fathers in their play interactions with children. When fathers made play interactions with infant children, they deemed fathers to be their supporters or compensators. Watching infant children enjoying the play with their father who is her husband supporting her, mothers felt happiness and enforced the expectation for their husbands.
Second, fathers made their joy of play consistent with their children?fs joy of play while experiencing the play interactions with their infant children. They felt joy in the interactions with their children who could make language communication as they grew and developed, and they realized the joy while they observed and accommodated their children. Although the happy child seeing him became the motive, fathers who became absorbed in the play feeling joy in the play desired for the developed father]child relationship developed from the play experiences. They had dissatisfaction and felt sorry for the physical limitations of time and body but they thought it more important to keep and maintain better relations with their children in the future. Fathers showed strong desire to make efforts to strengthen father]child relationship through play interactions with their children.
The similarity and differences of play interactions with their infant children of fathers and mothers are as follows.
First, parents with infant children observed the characteristics and development of their children while experiencing the play interactions.
Second, fathers and mothers were different in the approach to their children, the play method and the strategy in the play interactions. Fathers started to play observing their children and accommodating their desire to play but they found joy and pleasure in the play and came to pursue their own joy. Mothers, however, tried to give educational lessons in the play interactions and used the play strategically to perform their parenting behaviors successfully.
Third, fathers felt bond with their children in the play interactions and expected to strengthen it during the play. Mothers, however, pursued the perfection of the role of mother in the interactions and performed resultant processes.
Finally, parents with infant children yearned to make and keep good parent]child relationship experiencing play interactions with their infant children and felt emotional fulfillment and happiness within the boundary of family. It was emphasized that in the role and responsibilities of parents for their infant children fathers and mothers should keep reciprocal relations and perform their roles reciprocally rather than doing separate or different role or responsibility.
Through this study, the meaning of life and experiences of parents as the subjects of the roles to perform parenting while experiencing play interactions with their infant children at home.