As time pressures intrude, play diminishes in quality. Play takes adequate space. Besides gross motor play, children need opportunities to stimulate fine motor skills, social development, negotiation, creativity, problem-solving skills, imaginations, emotional skills, as well as direct experience of their inherited world. Parents believe that they can impact emotional development more so than intellectual or social development of their young children. Parents see the first three years as not so important for the area of social development.
Parents emphasize nature over nurture when it comes to their children's intellectual development.
Parents play down the effect that outside child-care arrangements have on their children's development, especially if a stable home life is provided. Parents are learning about children's needs as they parent, rather than before they become parents. Parents want information about early brain development, but also specific information about what it means and what they should be doing for their children. Parents emphasize their role in keeping their children safe and seem not to know ways to match activities for and interactions with the development, interests, temperament, and moods of their children. Parents desire to spend more time with their children.