ABSTRACT
When we began to undertake research for this book, we felt it was important that children from ‘traditional families’ were represented. All too often it is assumed that the ‘traditional family’ is the ideal type of family and that children brought up within them experience a stable, fulfilling and enjoyable childhood. An excerpt from the Observer illustrates the predominance in public consciousness of the ‘traditional family’ structures as an ideal, ‘. . . two committed parents provide a child with the best chance of survival, and . . . children need the stability and security of that relationship’ (Observer, 17 October 1993). The fact that traditional families are not a homogeneous phenomenon and that such children live through a variety of experiences (some adverse, some not) can sometimes be forgotten (White and Woollett, 1992). It is worth remembering that families constitute different environments for different family members at different points in the family lifecycle (Burman, 1994). As such, children in traditional families deserve a voice in our society (Franklin, 1995; Leach, 1994) alongside those children whose circumstances are perhaps more obviously disadvantaged. It was with this in mind that children’s reflections of traditional family life were sought.
