I sure hope that each and every single one of you who've answered this question have children! I am seeing that parents are taking quite a beating with this one.. . Even with the best parenting skills possible, there comes a point when offspring will do as they shall. You can only teach them the correct path. Whether they choose that path will ultimately be up to them. It's the luck of the draw--and that's with a kid that's had a good upbringing. The others, the thousands of parentless souls that basically raise themselves, or are raised by TV and teachers--it's a bloody miracle how well so many do, really.. . Parenting is a hard and, for the most part, thankless task that childless adults are all too willing to toss their two cents in about, when they've just never done it. You can't just parent by the book. That will never work and is unrealistic in real life. It's all give and take and a guessing game.. . I think I'll decide when my child is about 30 how well I've done. Until then, still a work in progress. (he's 14 now). And the rest of you out there, if you have kids, best of luck and God bless. If you don't, go raise a kid, then come back and give us your opinion. Grrrr....(one of those days.)