Brian Tatler and His Family

Chapter 11, “Brian Tatler and His Family,” describes a middle-class European American family with two children. Brian and his younger brother went to day care and spent two afternoons a week with their grandmothers while their parents worked full-time. Brian was a placid child and an avid participant in pretend play, whose special stuffed animals were almost like family members. The Tatler family enjoyed a robust expressive life, which included singing, book reading, and telling a hybrid genre of stories of their own invention, which became part of Brian’s bedtime ritual. Brian was learning to be comfortable with his feelings within a set of family practices that were highly attuned to the full spectrum of emotional life. His parents believed that he had high self-esteem, citing his growing awareness of his own successes, his positive attitude, his willingness to try new things, and his ability to shift focus when upset.