[kragen]

A lot of it is about random chance. Your kid could get kicked in the head by a mule and spend the rest of her life suffering from severe brain damage, and that's not your fault. Your kid could hang out with the wrong group of kids in high school and end up as a stockbroker or otherwise doing something worthless. You can't control who your kids hang out with in high school or even in elementary school, you can't control their genes (much), you can't control most of what happens to them.

Of course there are lots of kids who suffer because of things their parents did, and you can avoid some of that. But mostly your child's life is not in your control. And that's a good thing.

[bdunbar]

But mostly your child's life is not in your control.

The parts that are in your control affect how the child acts for the rest of his life.