ABSTRACT
The power of expectations can dominate how a child grows up in the many worlds they face. This chapter outlines how to encourage appropriately high expectations, how to provide encouragement for the child to realize these expectations, and how to develop the child’s coping strategies to deal with one's expectations. Children are adept at coping with different expectations from different sources. As they grow, they become more adept at seeking different sources of support, begin to look to peers more, and create different worlds within the family, at school, and on the playground. A precursor to realizing any expectations is a healthy bond between parents and child preferably one based on trust. This notion of ‘feeling attached’ has dominated much of the research literature about children and families since the early work by John Bowlby, a British psychologist. A recent meta-analysis by Sheri Madigan and colleagues showed how John Bowlby’s attachment notions are still relevant today.
