this contracts the current node to its parent and 
        then either caclulates the params and values if all 
        child data exists, OR uses the default parent data.
        (In real terms it returns the parent and recalculates)
        TODO = processes need to be recalculated

def contract(self, process):
        """
        this contracts the current node to its parent and 
        then either caclulates the params and values if all 
        child data exists, OR uses the default parent data.
        (In real terms it returns the parent and recalculates)
        TODO = processes need to be recalculated
        """
        print('TODO: process check = ', process)
        print(self.name, ' contracted to ->', self.parent)
        return self.parent