Childhood Memories the Interviewee Chosen

Childhood Memories

The interviewee chosen for this project grew up in a big family, where she was the third-eldest child out of four children. She has two sisters - one younger and one older - and an older brother. There are fifteen years between the age of the oldest child and the age of the youngest child. All of the children are natural children, born to the mother and father, and there was no adoption present. The family had both a mother and a father present in the home. The mother stayed home and took care of the children and the father worked to provide for the family. He also had some health problems, which stopped him from doing as much with his family as he otherwise might have. Since he was raised in an orphanage, he didn't really know how to interact with a family that well and be that close to them, which was something that was reflected in his affection level for his children and his wife. The mother in the family helped to make up for that, and the interviewee does not harbor ill will toward either parent or her childhood surroundings, at least not outwardly.

The interviewee grew up in Ohio, in a medium-sized town that had a lot to do but wasn't full of the bustle of the big city. The town was close to larger cities, however, and small towns as well, so there were many places to work, to shop, and to attend events for the parents. Despite that, however, the parents were careful with money and did not go to that many places. They were not a rich family, nor were they poor, falling in the lower-middle class range and having all of what they needed and some of what they wanted. The family went to church, made friends with the neighbors, and did the 'normal' things that one assumes a functioning family actually does. There was some animosity between siblings, as is expected, but no more than the usual family squabbles were present.

The interviewee states that her parents were well-prepared for her birth. By the time she came along they had already had a girl and a boy who would have been six and two at the time of her birth, so they had baby clothes and items, and the mother had a good understanding of what childbirth and childrearing was going to be like. The interviewee's parents did not have a set number of children that they were trying or not trying to have, so the pregnancy was neither deliberately planned nor an accident that was unwanted. The interviewee arrived basically on time, within just a few days of the due date, and did not have any health complications. She weighed 7.5 pounds and was 19.5 inches long at birth. She was a healthy, normal term, normal weight baby, as were all of her siblings. She was the first baby born in the hospital to the family, as the first two children were born at home. This made it somewhat easier but also rather strange, because it was a departure from what the mother was used it. Having a baby at home was a more common practice during her lifetime than it is now.

During infancy, the interviewee's cognitive abilities were stimulated by playing with her older siblings, and also by the mother, who was able to spend a lot of time with her children and did not work outside the home. Games like pat-a-cake were played, and toys were offered that had many bright colors and were enjoyable. She was also read to quite often from a very early age. According to the text, stimulating all of a baby's senses early and often is important for development. Reading to them is very good, so that's something that the interviewee's mother was definitely doing right. Another advantage that the interviewee had was the benefit of older siblings. Not only did the mother learn from mistakes that she might have made with them, but they were also around to play with the interviewee, meaning that she was benefitting from their interaction with her. Learning language can be difficult for an infant who does not hear people speaking that much, but with other children around there was certainly a lot of talking.

Walking and talking were reached as they should have been, with the interviewee walking around one year of age. She cannot remember when she said her first word and began to talk, but she does remember that there was no talk in her childhood of her being developmentally delayed in any way. She was able to meet all milestones and perform the required tests that the doctor gave her to ensure that she was of normal intelligence and reasoning abilities, as well as physical abilities. The interviewee compared to her siblings favorably. She walked earlier than her brother did, and was on the same level with her older sister. The younger sister, who came along later, surpassed the milestones of the other children, but not by a wide margin. The home environment remained very stable. The mother and father remained married and living together up until the father died when the interviewee was a married adult. Income status increased slowly and gradually, but the family was never poor, so money was not a serious concern at any point during the interviewee's formative years.