Parents, more than any other single factor, influence the adults their children will become.
Interaction by interaction with our children we are creating the adults of tomorrow. Yet, for the most part, we're winging it. Not because we don't love our children and truly want what is best for them, but because we are using a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants approach that has been silently passed from one generation to the next, and accepted as the norm.
Our lack of informed, intentional approaches to parenting result in the unnecessary suffering of children and adults, children who then don't reach their full potential as adults, and most of the social challenges we face today.