Andrea describes how she completes her business paperwork and book keeping at home in the evenings in the living room away from the children.

Beth makes calls from her telephone lists to recruit volunteers for a political candidate in an upcoming election:

I was on the Calling Committee…[The organizer] said …"If I give you some more numbers for your area, would you call 'em?" And I said, "Sure…no problem."…So she gives me these bunch of people's phone numbers, eh…when I called for [the candidate] I said…I'm [gives her name], I'm calling on behalf of [the candidate] can we count on your support? Well you get a few that say "Oh yes", or "I'm [political party 1]" or I'm [political party 2] or I don't know or you know, …It's kinda yeah ok whatever…And then ah…I worked the election… I get paid 75 dollars for that!

Andrea indicates that these calls are done while her children are in school and her meticulous notes, lists and records are kept in a secure place away from the children.

Jane is the only parent who mentions deliberately modelling her own reading, writing, or learning or seeing this as valuable to a child's learning. She remarks, "I guess [my children are] like imitating me if I'm having the paper and I'm reading. They see me reading." If they receive a notice from school, Jane states that she consciously reads it in the presence of her children, "'Oh you've got a notice today' and I'll read out loud what the note says…They'll say, 'well what's that?' and I'll explain the note to them." For the church bulletin, Jane states that "sometimes I'll read it in the church and then I bring it home and sit down and really read it when I get home. Sometimes I'll read it with the kids."

Jane goes on to say that to her this type of modeling is the best way that she knows how to help show her children about the value and importance of reading. Some researchers have come to believe in the importance of affect or making literacy enjoyable. They feel that if parents model literacy as something that is enjoyable, rather than a required task, the children will adopt this attitude and be more likely to become engaged in literacy (Svensson, 1994). As would be expected, more enjoyment with an activity could result in added time spent involved in the activity and thereby obtaining additional practice. This, obviously, would result in an increased likelihood of success.