This paper aims to clarify and describe the influences of family, especially parents, on the socioemotional development of a child. Each parenting style has a different impact on the child and its development. Studies and research have shown that authoritative parenting style (as opposed to others) stands out as the most optimal in all stages of child development. Jay Belsky’s parenting model depicts individual characteristics of parents, child characteristics and contextual factors as influences that can determine parental behavior. The integrative model of parenting relies on the ecological perspective of development. In that respect, notion of parenting is divided into experience of parenting, parenting style, and parenting practices and activities. Emotional development of a child can be traced through different phases: infancy, early childhood, middle childhood and adolescence. Expression of emotions in the infancy is largely linked to the child's attachment to parents and parent actions in general, and their relationship also depends on the child's temperament. In early childhood, empathy and self-regulation appear to be important elements of development that are becoming more elaborate and complex in middle-aged childhood and adolescence. In adolescence, during which the child's identity is built, a major influence on development has the emotional climate in the family environment as well as peer relations.