The translations of taped interviews with Yoruba parents in two' sub-ethnic groups, the lkale and the Ekiti, are the substance of this Working Paper. Very rarely do the views expressed at the field level survive into research reports, much less reach the demographer, concerned as he or she is ultimately with aggregated analysis. Very rarely, too, does the opportunity arise for parents involved in demographic surveys to '.have en input into the development of survey concepts. They are usually faced with readymade conceptualization, definition and operationalization of phenomena closely related to their lives, and asked to respond within these limits. The convention of pre-testing questionnaires, embodying those pre-determined concepts, helps up to the point of identifying inappropriate concepts, but not those that may be most germane.