Studies documenting subjective changes in quality of life of pediatric cochlear implant recipients are limited. In this study, parents of cochlear implant recipients completed a questionnaire requesting them to list advantages and disadvantages associated with their children's cochlear implant use. Preimplantation, benefits expected by parents included awareness of environmental sounds (89% of parents), improved speech perception (50%), and improved speech production (36%). Disadvantages expected included equipment maintenance and repair (21% of parents), slow progression of auditory and speech skills (21%), and resistance to wearing the device (18%). One year postimplantation, benefits reported by parents included environmental sound perception (76% of parents), speech perception (64%), and speech production (52%). Two years postimplantation, benefits reported by parents included perception of environmental sounds (76% of parents), speech perception (67%), and speech production (57%). Three years postimplantation, benefits reported included perception of environmental sounds (61% of parents), speech perception (78%), and speech production (74%). Postimplantation, 36%, 24%, and 52% of the parents had no disadvantages to report at the 1, 2, and 3-year intervals, respectively. At all postimplant intervals, disadvantages associated with the size and maintenance of equipment were listed most frequently (36%, 48%, and 22% of parents, respectively). Open-ended questionnaires may be useful when evaluating a child before or after cochlear implantation.