Abstract: This cross-cultural article summarizes the perceptions of 2,908 parents from the United States, Taiwan, Germany, and Cyprus. We examine the family dynamics within these families, and we investigate the roles mothers and fathers play. Our findings show that for the international samples, pressure was a negative predictor for math achievement (low pressure was associated with high achievement); whereas, for the American samples pressure was a positive influence on achievement (higher pressure was associated with high achievement). The extent of help provided to children is not related to their ability. Only the right kind of help was found to be a predictor for achievement. We also find that fathers have distinctive roles to play in all of these cultures: Fathers say less and are listened to more.