ABSTRACT
This book is set in the context of contemporary life and depicts relationships among parents and children in four families living in a capital city in Australia. It tells stories about conflicts that occurred among these parents and their children in the course of daily domestic activity in four ordinary families. Parent and child conflict has been addressed in child or developmental psychology through research that began in the early years of the twentieth century and gained momentum rapidly. At the close of the twentieth century parents had access to a wide range of advice about childrearing and managing conflict between themselves and their children. Because of the overabundance of manuals and the step-by-step advice that many provide, it is often assumed that parent and child conflict is easily resolved. This chapter provides an introduction to themes raised in the book by explaining how psychology has achieved a place of dominance as the purveyor of parenting advice. Following this, it argues that postmodern times necessitate different approaches to understanding family relationships and maps out how this occurs in the remainder of the book.
