The family is one of the important factors that affects students'learning in the school environment and at the same time their academicachievement. In terms of education, the family environment is veryimportant in the early childhood period in which the development of thechild is fast and he acquires his personality traits. The educationalenvironment of the family and the parents' attitudes towards the childrencan either reinforce or blunt what they have learned in school (Bruner,1960). According to researches on determining the effect of parents ontheir children's education (Ballantine, 1983: 73; VVebb and Villiamy,1996: 303), it has been found out that the effect of home environment ismore dominant than school program in determining success, and theilliteracy of the family in children education has a negative effect on thechild (Atakli, 1999: 247). In this case, family environment outside ofschool, especially the attitudes of parents, can both improve children'slearning behaviors and also bring about negative effects on their learning(Erdogdu, 2007: 35).One of the determinants of the attitudes of family, especially of theparents, considered to have a serious effect on child's developing skills(cognitive, affective, and psychomotor) as a whole while raising theirchildren is the perceptions they have towards the concept of child. Theseperceptions they have are most of the time and without being aware reflected in their style of raising children. From this point of view, parents' perceptions and perspectives of their child in relation to the concept ofchild, in other words, their affective properties will have a positive effecton our understanding of the attitudes of parents each of whom is at thesame time parents of students. From this aspect, metaphors constitutean important function in uncovering affective properties of parents inrelation to the concept of child.PurposeThis research was carried out in an attempt to find out theperceptions that parents have in relation to the concept of "child" throughmetaphors. Within the framework of this general objective, it wasintended to provide answers to the following questions.1. Which metaphors do the parents have in relation to conceptof " child"?2. According to their common features, under which categoriescan the metaphors that the parents stated be grouped ?MethodResearch DesignIn this study, phenomenography, which is a qualitative researchmethod, was used. Phenomenographic research design allowsresearchers to conduct an in-depth examination of the phenomena (suchas events, experiences and situations) that we encounter in our dailylives, but do not think about much or have detailed information about(Yıldırım and Şimşek, 2011).Research GroupThis research was conducted in the academic year of 2014-2015with 100 parents who were randomly contacted and participated in thestudy voluntarily. Of the participants, 53 were male and 47 female.Collection and Analysis of DataIn order to determine the perceptions of parents in relation to theconcept of child, a form which included the expression " Child is just like..............because it is .........." was distributed. Content analysis wasconducted on the data obtained.The analysis of the metaphors that thesurveyed parents developed was done in five stages. (1) coding andelimination stage, (2) assembling sample metaphors image stage, (3)category developing stage, (4) providing validity and reliability stage and(5) transferring the data to a computer.MeasureAccording to the overall findings obtained from this survey, parentsdeveloped 77 metpahors in relation to the concept of "child". Of the 77metaphors developed, 16 (Tree, Flower, Love, Water, Rose, Life, Joy,Angel, Dough, Happiness, All we have, Mirror, Gluon, The human eye,Robot, Heart ) were by 2 and 4 participants. The other metaphors weredeveloped by just one participant. The metaphors were grouped in termsof their common features in accorance with the data obtained from thestudy group and each group created a category. Thus, the number ofcategories created in this research is 10.Categories in a sequence are as Child as a Reflective (f=10, n=8)[Mirror (2),Glass (1), Eye(1), Sun(1), Light(1), Heart(2), Robot(1) A clean Sheet (1), A stage actor(1)], Child as a Passive Recipient (f=6, n=6) [Anunrecorded tape(1), Tabularasa(1), Unfrozen concerete(1),Puppet(1),Robot(1), Sponge(1)], Child as an entity that can be shaped (f=13, n=8)[Tree (4), Glass(1),Knife(1), Instrument(1), Dough (2), Remote Control (1),Water(2), Salt(1)], Child as the source of Happiness (f= 20, n= 16) [Love(3), Honey(1), Pepper(1), Flower(1), Child(1), Joy of the House(1), Smile(1),Dream(1), the Meaning of Life(1), Serenity(1), Snowflakei(1), Butterfly(1),Happiness(2), Music(1), Joy(1), Gluon(2)] , Child as a Guarantee of theSociety and Future (f=4, n=4) [Four Season(1), Livelihood(1),Future (1),Pencil(1)], Child as a being in Need of Care and Attention (f=7, n=6)[Bamboo(1), Flower(2), Sapling(1), Fruit(1), Seed(1), Soil(1)] , Child as aDelevoping and Producing Being (f=8, n=7) [Encyclopedia(1), Gin(1),Philosopher (2),Sky(1), Light(1), Water(1), A Drop of water softly flowing (1)],Child as a Complex Structure that creates a problem (f=8, n=8) [Mother(1),Bothersome(1), Bomb(1), Dog(1), Machine(1), Parsley(1), Wind(1), Salad(1)],Child as an unknown mysterious being (f=8, n=8) [Cloud(1), Wave(1),İmpossible love(1), Purse(1), Box(1), A Foggy Road (1), A long Path(1)] andChild as a Valuable Asset (f=16, n=11) [Nose(1), Heaven(1), the treasureof the house (1), Eye(1), Rose(3), Beauty(1), Life(2), All we have(2),Snowdrops blooming in the winter(1), Angel(2), Breath(1)].Results and DiscussionThis research was conducted to find out perceptions of parentsabout children in terms of education each of whom was a parent