ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on three issues: protectiveness versus promoting independence; the primacy of the handicap in parent's eyes; parental authoritarianism or control. It also focuses on family member's reactions and attitudes a little later on, at a time when the parents might be being involved in teaching programmes for their young mentally handicapped child. Parental attitudes have assumed major importance in the study of child development. Feelings of rejection, or simply ambivalence toward the child have often been described in the literature. Cook and Wetter suggest that mild handicaps are more likely to be associated with parental feelings of rejection. Wolfensberger's summary lists 45 early reactions, all negative, including shock, denial, grief, guilt, rejection, rage, impulses to kill the child. A number of authors have cited over involvement or overcompensation as a reaction of some parents. Thus parents are described as feeling that child is specially entrusted to them, that only they properly understand the child, summed up as too-good mothering.
