ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the needs of mothers of young children, not from the point of view of what psychologists feel mothers should know in order to maximally facilitate the development of their children, but in relation to what mothers choose to take from psychology in order to cope better with the problems and issues which they confront as caretakers of young children. It looks at courses on child development for parents, with particular reference to the development over nine years of one particular course, where changes where made as a direct result of feedback on content and methods from all the mothers who attended. The chapter argues that the psychology of the parent may be as important as the psychology of the child and thus any professional involved in presenting psychology to parents, whether in therapy or education, must look beyond the traditional boundaries of child psychology research to find workable implications for practice.
