This study investigated women's perceptions of caring and control in their fathers versus their mothers in relation to specific ways in which they interacted with their infants during freeplay. Participants were 73 mothers and their 6 month-old infants. Results revealed that women's perceptions about their mothers compared to their fathers in the same domain of parenting can have differing relations with various aspects of their own parenting, such as infant-directed speech and positive engagement with their infants. Specific parenting behaviours related differentially to women's perceptions about their parents. These associations were independent of global predictors of early parenting such as women's depressive status. Findings could have implications for targeting prevention and intervention efforts to mothers at risk for less positive parenting. How controlling or caring they remember their parents to be could serve as a protective factor or convey additional risk depending on the gender of their parents.