As a parent of a 3 year old, I haven't yet had to deal with this, but I have thought about it. My view is that a parent is supposed to protect and guide a chil

As a parent of a 3 year old, I haven't yet had to deal with this, but I have thought about it. My view is that a parent is supposed to protect and guide a child to prepare them for adulthood and being self-sufficient once they are of age. To that end, I plan to take the general viewpoint that on the major stuff I will force requirements from my child. On everything else that is far less important, I will let my child make decisions so that they can learn cause and effect and the consequences of those actions. Doing this I hope to shield them from terrible decisions that affect their lives in a major or permanent way and let them experience the good and bad of the decisions which have less impact. So... study - this is in the "major" category. I will push them to do well and have expectations that are challenging and in line with their ability. religion - my wife cares about this so she is going to raise them as Roman Catholic (which both of our families are). I actually am not a fan of organized religion but I don't see the big harm since no one in our family lives their life around it at all (hell, we don't even go to church), and it can help teach some core values which I do approve of. I plan to encourage my daughter as she gets older to think critically about the role, if any, she wants religion to play in her life and press the fact that she should seriously evaluate it again as an adult. online controls - i'm not going to filter her internet or anything but I will strongly stress the dangers of communications with random strangers on the internet. the COPPA law helps here, since children aren't supposed to be able to have accounts until a certain age (12 or 13 I think?), which is an age where they are fully capable of understanding what is being explained to them regarding the dangers. of course, anyone can fill out any age they want when signing up, so there is still a concern that has to be monitored. Also, youtube kids is pretty good at filtering out the inappropriate content. some stuff slips through, but overall it's pretty solid.