Children’s Narratives on the Father-Child Relation

Abstract

This paper emanates from the recent ideas which argue for importance of children’s voices. The ideas focus on legal rights of children and recognise their experiences as a valid perspective on any phenomenon. The child’s view has been widely used to understand various constructs; however parenting (especially fathering) in India still requires a wider understanding of children’s view. Nineteen focused group discussions (FGD) were conducted in Vadodara and in Delhi, in order to generate themes about children's views on their relation with their fathers. The discussions focused on the role of father, role of father versus role of mother, what fathers do for them, their expectations from their fathers and role of children. The children’s narratives about their fathers’ have common themes with respect to care, expectations and relationships across class, religion, region and gender. The children largely described their fathers as loving and caring beings, with respect to four themes: attachment with fathers, involvement of fathers in children’s life, expectations from fathers and father’s role in their lives and family. The themes overlap and signify ‘directionality’ in individuality of father-child relationship, that is, mutual effort towards the ‘other’. The children justified the role of the father as a disciplinarian but reported some vices which they wished their father did not have.