Childhood Observation

Introduction
I decided to do my qualitative paper on “How involved are fathers in interacting with their children” I went to the local mall on a Sunday, knowing that families are more likely to take a trip here on a weekend oppose to weekdays as parents may be at work and children may be home or at school. The setting I choose for this study was the build-a-bear workshop store. Build a bear workshop is very popular toy customization store, located in the local mall. This store is always busy with lots of children and their parents having fun building bears or simply purchasing toys. I walked into the store and started to walk around for a bit to get a feel for the setting and observe the people in the store. My criteria for this study:
This father was clearly not involved at all with his children as they had fun at the store, his interaction with them was very poor and he seem to be not interested in being there at all. He looked like he would rather be somewhere else. This observation is posing a bigger concern for society, especially, if there are a lot more fathers not getting involved with their children; this may create a disconnecting with their father. Children need both parents to feel loved and cared for and not just the attention of their mothers.

Limitation
I observed this family in one setting alone. Observations need to be completed on different fathers’ interactions with their children in different settings. The father at the mall may have been uninvolved at the mall but he could be very involved at other settings like a soccer game etc. Also, a lot of factors may have caused him to not interact with the children and that can also be the reason for his actions. Other extraneous factors were not considered.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to state based on my observation that fathers are less involved with their children during mall trips. Further research is needed to answer the research question in depth; one observation of a father cannot be applied to the general