 Parents play a key role in our growth and development as children and adults. If you have bad parents, it will reflect in your approach to life and your conduct. Children usually model after their parents, and this is why parents should leave lives worthy of emulation. According to the Child Development Institute, the proper role of parents is to provide encouragement, support, and access to activities that enables the child to master key developmental tasks. Your parents should be the child's favorite teacher and he actively involved in your learning. Now you are young, even if you are not married yet, you can start to learn some key things that will help you groom your kids. You must therefore do things differently. In today's video, I am going to share with you 18 things great parents do differently. If you are new here, consider subscribing to our channel for more awesome videos such as this one. 1. It is non-interference. According to Popo's Fairy blog, your children are life's gifts to you. The way you raise your children is the gift you give back to life. Pour your love and wisdom onto them and you will pour your love and wisdom onto life. It's not easy for any parents to accept that their children are their own people. Parents often see children as small and in need even when they are grown. One of the defining characteristics of great parents is allowing their children to be their own people. Let them choose their own interests, their own hobbies and their own friends. The more independent a child is, the more confident they will be when they grow up. If you make the child super dependent on you, they will turn up dependent adults. According to American auto Wayne Dyer, parenting is not about having children lean on you but making learning unnecessary. They have a compass. Let them follow their own compass, freeing you up to be your own person on your own time and allowing them to become who they are to become. Two, they help the children develop their abilities. Good parents don't judge their children's abilities. No one decides whether or not they will be athletes. A child whose strengths lies in writing, no matter how trained, will be unlikely to turn out a great athlete. A parent's job is not to impose abilities on their children but to help their children nurture the ones they already have. According to research from Harvard University, every child is born a genius across multiple beats of intelligence and that by the age of 20, the percentage of geniuses within a population widows down to 10% and over the age of 20, only 2% retained their genius ability. It is up to their parents to ensure this doesn't happen. Three, they support their children through phases of growth. Children have different phases of growth and each phase presents its own unique challenges. A good parent knows when their child is depressed and when they feel pressured by their friends. The good parent does not judge their children's decision but helps them see a better way. Four, they help them shape the right worldview. As a parent, it is your responsibility to teach your child how to see the world. Although morals are usually instructed by the parents, if this is not done, the child might grow up thinking it's okay to hit another person simply because he or she is annoyed. Five, they help them differentiate between right and wrong. Good parents teach their children about good and evil. Only bad parents don't tell their children. Things is basic as the understanding that human life is important and that people should preserve both theirs and that of others are not taught in many homes. This cause means that parents are supposed to lead exemplary lives for their children to follow. If as a father, you abuse your wife, it will be difficult to teach your son about good and evil. Wouldn't it? Six, they teach them about financial management. Good parents don't only send their words to school, they also teach them how to manage their money. Financial management is something very essential in life. Good parents teach their own children. Seven, they help them get their first jobs. Good parents also help their words get their first jobs. It's an experience the children never forget. Sometimes, they start to work as early as the age of 16 years. Eight, they discipline them. Great parents do not pamper their children. They make them answer for everything they do wrong and punish them when deserving. They do not look away when their children do the wrong things and then publicly support their children when they are wrong. Nine, they see to their education. Good parents send their words to the best schools possible and ensure they follow through with their studies. Good parents do not have to have all the money to send their children to college. They just need to help their words apply for college loans. Education is a big investment and will enable the child to subsequently be able to work in a large organization and be paid handsomely. They sometimes go as far as encouraging their words to enroll in summer classes. Bad parents leave their children to fend for themselves. They may even give them a way to foster care. Ten, they take them to places. One great way of connecting with loved ones is by traveling together. Good parents go on vacations with their children and take pictures as memorabilia. They take their kids to see the games and see movies and to watch the sunset at parks. Seven, they build a strong bond with them. Great parents build intimacy with their children. They may do this by reading them bedtime stories and singing them lullabies. They remember the children's favorite characters and the stories and make jokes out of them to make them laugh. They attend events where their children will do something. They fight to come home on time to help their kids with homework and never ever forget their bad days. Twelve, they teach them never to settle. It is a tough world. It is very easy to give up on a dream when it is difficult to achieve. Good parents teach their children they can achieve anything they set their minds on. They encourage them until they hit their targets. They know the world is a tough place and cannot afford their children to be unprepared. They teach their children to keep going, to push beyond their limits in the pursuit of their goals. They teach them not to quit. Good parents are usually too busy drinking or yelling at each other to care about their children's concerns. Thirteen, they teach them to be confident. Great parents teach their children to believe in themselves. Did your parents ever tell you they believed in you before? My parents told me that a lot of times, even when you feel worthless, if other people think you are worth something, you will start to feel valuable. Good parents show their friends, their children, and talk about their strengths. These immensely boost confidence for their kids who then go on to make their parents more proud with numerous accomplishments. Fourteen, they give them challenging tasks to toughen them. Some parents prefer their children to be comfortable while others are being put in tough situations that will toughen them. This may be in form of bothered school and camping. They may also get them a difficult job to help them grow a sense of commitment and diligence. What parents think challenging tasks may harm their children. They want to protect their child and may end up spoiling them. Children need a certain level of grit to persevere in any endeavor, academics or otherwise. Helping them build grit will only help them in the long run. Not helping them to do it early can lead to a lot of disappointments in the future which they might blame you for. Fifteen, they teach them how to make the right friends. Good parents don't choose their children's friends. They however advise them on what to look out for. They show them their own friends and tell them how they became friends. Sixteen, they teach them how to discern fake friends. Good parents help their children discern whether their friends are fake or not. Sometimes, they can teach them whether their friends is coming to witness a special day or see something remarkable that they have done. Fake friends usually don't care and will not do things they don't find interesting. A good friend may not want to do something but at least they will be honest about it. Seventeen, they teach them to be themselves. Good parents teach their children not to try and feed into society. They acknowledge their children's unique talents and try to encourage them to explore them. They teach their children that they don't have to conform to the world. They breed an environment of trust and safety for their children. Eighteen, they love them. Good parents love their children. They make a lot of sacrifices for them and help them forge their part in life. Every child has his or her own purpose in life. Good parents don't interfere. They see their roles more as temporal and guide their children to growth and maturity. It is easier to leave your life and ignore the children than to actually be actively involved in their lives. It can be scary, very scary. It is okay not to have all the answers. Your kids will not run out of questions. It is okay to feel like you don't know what you are doing. What matters is that you care about your kids and want to work towards becoming a better parents for them. The more you work towards this, the better you will become. I promise you.