BF31781



I chose to do my Book/Film Response on the film “Cheaper By The Dozen” with Steve Martin. In the movie its shows two parents trying to raise their twelve children. The children vary in ages and in the chaos of trying to raise all their children they also have to juggle with their careers. Kate narrates her story about her family and their careers. This film definitely shows parent-child relationships and I would have to say that the best parenting style that this presents would be authoritarian parenting style. The parents do not have a lot of nurture towards their kids because there is so many and they pretty much treat them all the same. They don’t really have a lot of communication either. Kate and Tom expect their children to be mature and know what they should and shouldn’t be doing. As parents, they do not give their kids much attention, they live on a daily routine and everything is usually the same for them. The parents go to work, kids go to school, and things are always done the same. The crisis occurs in the scene at (14-22 minutes) of the movie. Tom Baker offered to coach at his alma mater in Evanston, Illinois. The family moved there for a better home and for his career regardless of the fact that many of the children did not want to move. The children had to adapt to their new home, new neighborhood, new school, and new way of life. A lot of this didn’t work so well at least not at the beginning. Nora Baker is the oldest child. Nora lives on her own with her boyfriend and dislikes her younger siblings always getting in her personal life and messing with her boyfriend. Nora is in Freud’s genital stage and she is exactly where she should be. She is probably about 20 years old so this stage is where she should be. I would also say she is in the right stages for Erikson, being young adulthood. As well as Piaget, which is the formal operational stage. Charlie Baker is the second eldest child. He plays football and is very social until they get news that they are moving. When they move he becomes very secluded and anti-social with the family and others around him. He is probably about 18 years old and in Freud’s genital stage as well. He is probably in between Erikson’s adolescence and young adulthood stage. In Piaget’s development he is in the formal operational stage as well. Lorraine Baker is the third child. She loves fashion, glamour, etc. She is really close with her sis ter Sarah who is totally opposite of her; she is a tom boy and is younger than her. Lorraine is probably about 16. Lorraine is most likely in the adolescence stage of Erikson’s stages, and in between the concrete and formal operational stage of Piaget. For Freud she is in between the latency and genital stage. Henry Baker is the fourth child, Charlie is his role model and he looks up to him more than any other family member. He plays the clarinet and is in the latency stage of Freud’s stages. Henry is most likely in Piaget’s concrete operational stage and Erikson’s adolescence stage. Sarah Baker, the fifth child, is one of the most involved children. She is a tom boy and Lorraine and her are like best friends. Sarah thinks of all of the pranks they do and sometimes they get a little out of hand. Sarah is in Erikson’s school age stage but has actions that are very immature that may make her seem like she falls in his preschool stage sometimes. She most likely is in Freud’s latency stage but is definitely in Piaget’s preoperational stage because of the pranks and jokes she plays. Jake Baker is the sixth child. He enjoys skateboarding and is close with Mike Baker who is the tenth Baker child. Jake is probably in school age stage of Erikson’s stages like Sarah is and also the preoperational stage of Piaget’s. Jake is in Freud’s latency stage as well. Mark Baker, the seventh Baker child, is often teased by his siblings and called “Fedex” because he is the only child with red hair and they joke that the Fedex man dropped him off at the doorstep. This really upsets him and he is often alone with his frog that he has because he doesn’t feel accepted. Due to his age Mark is probably in Freud’s phallic stage, he is in the school age of Erikson most definitely, and for Piaget I think he would be considered in the concrete operational stage because of his actions. Jessica and Kim are the eighth and ninth children of the Baker children. They are the first set of twins and they are fraternal. They are always together and are the smartest children of the family. Kim and Jessica would fall under the phallic stage of Freud’s stages, the school age stage of Erikson’s stages, and probably the formal operational stage of Piaget’s stages because of their intelligence. The tenth Baker child is Mike Baker. He is close with his brother Jake and spends most of his time with the older children. He skateboards, plays hockey, and usually does dangerous things. Mike is most likely in the preoperational stage of Piaget’s stages, school age in Erikson’s, and phallic in Freud’s. The youngest two of the Baker children, Kyle and Nigel Baker, the eleventh and twelfth children are twins as well. The boys are the second set of twins and are identical. They look up to all of their siblings and are always trying to get involved in the pranks. The boys most definitely fall into the phallic stage of Freud, in Erikson’s stages, they fall between preschool and school age, and for Piaget’s, and they are probably in the preoperational stage. Out of all the twelve children the Baker family has they have many different stages that the parents experience with all the children. The age variety is huge which shows all the differences between them all. Each child has their own way of acting and reacting. With twelve children the Baker parents have went through almost every Freud, Erikson, and Piaget stage with their children. A good thing about having so many children is the experiences you get to go through and the things that you learn to do and not do for the younger ones. I think that this film had a really good view of the stages of development that we reviewed in the chapters we went over. There is a good overview in the movie relaying to almost each stage and gives us a view of what each is actually like. I really liked the movie, when I first watched it I didn’t really pay much attention to the different stages but the second time around it was like they popped out to me and it was pretty easy to identify each one.

Bibliography 1) Boyd, Denise and Helen Bee. Lifespan Development. Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2009. Print 2) __Cheaper By The Dozen.__ Dir. Shawn Levy. Perf. Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Hillary Duff, Tom Welling, and Piper Perabo. 20 Century Fox Home Network. 2003, Film. 3) []. Web. 17 April, 2012.

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__Subject Matter—15 points out of 20__ You need in-text citations to the textbook and movie for the concepts you are referring to.

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 Grade: 88/100  You need in-text citations to the textbook and movie for the concepts you are referring to.