ABSTRACT
We all have an opinion of what family is and about what our version of family values entails. It may include unconditional love, respect, ‘holding in mind’, loyalty, tolerance, grouping together in times of trauma or hardship and helping each other out when we can. It may mean feuding, long-held grudges, disappointment, loss of patience, control and upset. Behind all that, the cliché remains true: you can choose your friends, but not your family. The young child’s experience of their family will inform their own relationship values. Before they can verbalise their view, young children will be gathering information on how their nearest relate to each other and the behavioural strategies they see being used by the people around them. It is the wider world that Bronfenbrenner identifies in his social model, and this chapter will explore the importance of the interface between the child’s home environment and the social world around them. The relationship parents and practitioners have with each other and the impact on the child’s sense of security in new places, new experiences and with new people can be reinforced or undermined by the nuances of these adult relationships around them. For many children the childcare and early nursery settings often provide the first wider world contact outside their family unit of relatives and close family friends. The home environment and everyday reality of the child and their families can be reflected and complemented by the sensitive practitioner and teacher, not least by constructing positive relationships with the important people with whom the child lives. Have you ever heard a practitioner mutter something negative about a parent, or parent about a practitioner, in the earshot of the child for whom they both intend to have the best interests?
