ABSTRACT

A child can mean different things to different parents. Traditionally, a child is considered to carry the hopes and aspirations of the parents, who are prepared to sacrifice some of their own personal gratifications to further the child’s development. However, the vicissitudes of family life always colour the picture and many factors can influence the meaning that parents attribute to children generally, or to one child in particular. As a result of these influences, but without the family necessarily being aware of it, the child acquires an undeclared ‘script’ or ‘blueprint’ for his/her life that is consistent with the themes of the family but may submerge his/her personal characteristics. This has been described by Britton (personal communication) as: ‘being an actor in someone else’s play’.