Addressing areas of conflict between parents and young children, this study reports the results of interviews with parents about parent/child conflict that occurs in such natural settings as the home, the supermarket, and during visits to grandparents. Specifically, the investigation is concerned with three broad issues: (1) the identification of areas of conflict or argument between parents and their children as perceived by parents; (2) the hypothesis that conflict or argument between parents and young children occurs in the areas of food and its consumption, television viewing, the daily use of clothes and their initial selection, bedtimes, and toys; and (3) the identification of additional areas of conflict. Initially discussed are conflict, compliance, and power relationships from the perspectives of developmental psychology and sociolinguistics. Subsequent discussion, from a post-structuralist orientation, focuses on the issues of power, child compliance, and the ways persons are positioned as individuals in society. Interview data disclosed that the themes of food, clothing, television viewing, bedtimes, and toys were sources of conflict and noncompliance. However, the reconceptualization of the problem of parent/child conflict in terms of the ways in which discourse constructs relationships suggests that much more is happening in conflict situations than simple rule-breaking and noncompliance. (RH)