So…what doesconstitute “Good Parenting”?  Some people, it appears, seem to feel that being your children’s ‘friend’ will make you a ‘good parent’; however, what does that really promote?  Is it a priority to be this first and foremost in your child’s life rather then someone who instills discipline and a sense of responsibility in them as they learn and grow.  It is my belief that one of the top priorities as a parent must be, of course, teach the basics; but also, a few other rather important and integral details; such as learning coping skills with many different life situations, interaction skills with many different kinds of people, the always obvious right from wrong according to your perception of the generally accepted standard laws and rules of everyday life.  How about the concept of providing the best example possible of what generally acceptable values are in today’s world?  it is my feeling that this is one of the most important thing a parent can do to help their child or children to grow to be a well adjusted and developed, intelligent and conscientious person. 

Now while I believe that it is important to teach the children good values, and skills in coping and all that I have mentioned above; I also don’t believe it is the most important concept to be our children’s ‘friend’ while sacrificing good parenting skills; that doesn’t mean however, that we shouldn’t extend our gentle and kind side to our children as a way of helping our children gaining a certain amount of trust in our parenting skills and administration of stability as an adult figure in their lives.  Something else that should be important as a parent; I feel it is best to customize our parenting to each child’s needs.  We aren’t human manufacturing devices that create ‘cookie cutter’ children; so we shouldn’t treat them all the same.  We each have a responsibility as adults, parent or not, to be the best example we possibly can, you just never know when a child will be within ear or eyeshot of what you are doing and decide to emulate what you do. 

Thanks for reading, be sure to check yourself and provide the best example possible.