She watches one or two hours of television a day (mostly dramas) and uses the internet for approximately half an hour a day emailing and chatting.

Julia expects her daughter to complete some form of post secondary education. Julia does a lot of work at home. Her husband is a caterer and their daughter sees him do invoicing, bills, orders and accounting work. Julia reads the newspaper every day and she reads magazines and books. She and her mother-in-law also cook from cookbooks. Julia’s daughter also sees her parents modeling computer work including using the internet and typing reports and proposals. Her older sister models university work including reading text books and writing papers. The television is usually on if the family is home at night and Julia’s daughter sees her parents watching television. Julia’s husband sings to the radio.

Julia’s daughter is fairly independent with regard to homework although her parents occasionally help. She said, “Just in the last year we switched from going through homework with her to asking for help if she needs it. Before this year she had a homework book and we had to sign it every night, but now she’s in Grade 9 so we just have to sign tests.” Julia believes that her daughter is “probably more inclined to go to her sister; she took the same courses a few years ago.”

Julia and her husband stopped reading to their daughter one or two years ago. They read to her every night when she was quite young and then two or three times a week when she began school. The family has a lot of books at home and Julia’s daughter buys a lot of novels and school related books (for book reports). She reads books on pop culture and biographies. Julia’s daughter also uses her school’s library and brings books home once a week; “She is expected to be reading a book all the time so she would have two out all the time. She brings them home but she probably doesn’t read them too much at home.” Julia’s daughter also has a public library card although she uses the public library primarily during the summer.

Julia’s daughter watches television or videos three hours a day (primarily reality television). She uses the internet for one hour daily, browsing mostly sports and entertainment websites and checking statistics. Julia’s daughter goes to the museum three times a year and went to the Edmonton Art Gallery “a few times when she was younger.” She attends a lot of concerts and musicals. She also used to go to the TELUS World of Science when she was younger but has not visited in four or five years. Julia’s daughter goes to every Oilers game, has attended Centennial celebrations, Klondike Days, Taste of Edmonton and visited the Citadel Theatre once last year. Julia said, “I actively try to develop in her an interest in current events; school doesn’t really push that. I talk to her about politics, world events, etcetera. She’s not interested in anything outside of what she likes.”