So many of us parent the way our parents did – because it’s the only example we’ve had a chance to see up close. We think one of the ways to remedy this is to create a space where people can share stories of the things they feel their parents did right, so we can all learn from those examples.

Mika Smith

What didn’t my parents do right? I could go on forever about how lucky I am to have been raised by my mom and dad, but I’ll highlight a few things that stick out the most. My parents never pushed me to follow in their footsteps, pursue a certain career path, or fit into a box. They wholeheartedly encouraged me to think for myself, explore my passions, and appreciate my uniqueness. They have always shown genuine interest and curiosity in knowing me as a person. Read more>>

Trey Diller

They raised me to work for everything I have ever wanted in my life. Nothing is given especially trust which is earned. Hard work always pays off. I come from a family of 4 children and my father was a high school drop out that has built a 25+ million dollar automotive and collision empire here in The Woodlands. I have watched my Dad since I was a kid bust his tail and earn everything he has. If I wanted a new baseball bat or a new pair of football cleats, my parents required all of the children to work for anything we wanted. From mowing the lawn to doing the laundry, Read more>>

Lars Matilda

I’m glad Devine left me in that circus toilet, because if she didn’t I wouldn’t have my wonderful adopted clown family. Without them I wouldn’t know how to paint on my smile everyday, or fit an entire troupe of clowns in my tiny car. When I grew up, and left my family of clowns. I felt a deep need to track down my genetic origin. After years of research, and lots of community outreach. My fundraiser was successful, and I was able to track down the coordinates of my mothers final resting place. Read more>>

Edna Mancia

What did my parents do right? Well, I am a child of immigrants. So, growing up with 2 completely different cultures, it felt like they were doing everything wrong. Honestly, they taught me so much about how to always push through even when it looks like life is going against you. They taught me to always work hard, and to pursue my dreams. Read more>>

Reagan Briggs

I am incredibly grateful to have two of the coolest and most supportive parents out there. I swear, all my friends are friends with me simply due to getting to be around my parents! One thing that I appreciate about them is that they motivated me to always do what I wanted and helped guide me in that direction. I doubt that any other parents would of taken their 3 year-old child when they said they want to be in real estate, but they did. Read more>>

Iysha Wedderburn

My Parents Did Right By Teaching Me The Key Fundamentals of Marketing and Providing and Offering the best customer service for clients or potential clients. I grew up in an air force military background where I seen both of my parents stay diligently on what ever goals they wanted In life. We traveled a lot so I learned to adapt to several environments and ethnic backgrounds of diversity. Read more>>

Zach Weismann

My parents co-founded and opened their own Accounting practice together, as equal partners, in 1987. They had two young children, my brother and me, who were 4 and 2 respectively, at the time. Now being married myself with two small children, I have such an appreciation for how risky, stressful, but also how exciting that adventure must have been for them. I started my own company before my first child was born and thankfully my wife has had her own full-time job and successful career, lol. Read more>>

Jamil Shakoor

When I was 16, my parents sat me down and asked me what kind of career did I see myself in? It took some time, but only thing that I really ever thought about as far as a career was to be a chef. Once I told them that they told me “no matter how frustrated or how tired of it you get you’re going to have to work through that because once you start on this career path we’re not going to let you stop until you become successful. You may not like it but it will benefit you the most in the end.” Read more>>

Patricia Desamours

They thought me to value myself and keep a limitless mindset in regards to my life and my dreams. Most importantly, putting God first in everything I do. Thinking out the box definitely shaped my life and my beauty career. I remember how terrified I was to move to Miami from Montreal and start afresh, my family really supported me and pushed me past my fears and false beliefs. Let’s just say that for Caribbean parents, whatever I do I better do it right. Read more>>

Tanesha McQueen

I came into this world being a self thinker and being strong willed. Never really ever second guessing myself or worth. I owe a lot of that ability to my mother. I have created my whole brand Styling Her Esteem around what my mother did right. My mother let me be me and encouraged it! She spoke life into me and believed in me. Even when I was very outspoken and some parents would have tried to correct their child or make them do what they felt was right, not my mama. Read more>>

Irina Gedarevich

My parents immigrated to the US before I was born, and did everything in their power to give myself and my 10 siblings the best life they could. Their goal was to ensure we had the proper upbringing (faith and morals), education, and extracurriculars to succeed; and in exchange, they replaced their dreams to support ours. Nobody is perfect, and I am the result of imperfect parents who demonstrated problem solving skills, how to recover from mistakes, and how to solve issues that might come along by including us in their conversation. Read more>>

Adriana Murillo Zaun

One among many things that my parents did right is to be sustainable. I didn’t know any terminology, but for sure I knew by actions that zero waste was important in my life. My parents taught me how to be creative and re-use items instead it going into the trash. For instance, my mother was so great using every small scrap of fabric to create a patch garment or home decoration. My dad was always aware of what it was throwing in the trash and said we can always minimized trash by reusing it in something else, Read more>>

Verne Brooks Jr.

My mom raised me and my sisters on her own. She had a significant impact on who I am today. She sacrificed so much so that I could have every opportunity to make my dreams come true. She made sure I understood the importance of a good education. At the same time, she supported my love of sports because she knew the important lessons I would learn being on a team. Sports kept me busy and out of trouble but more importantly, it showed me how to be a team player, a leader, a communicator, and a problem solver. My mom taught me the importance of having a strong work ethic and putting in the time needed to become the best at what you do. Read more>>

Brina Bujkovsky

My parents – particularly my mom – infused me with a ton of personal confidence in both my own natural talents and my abilities to learn new skills. I grew up feeling like I could accomplish anything as long as I felt passionately about it. Both of my parents were artists and they always encouraged me to pursue my love of art, design and music. Read more>>

Danny Ramirez

Growing up my younger brother and I were raised by a single mother. So from the get-go, we were introduced to things like hard work, struggle, perseverance, and willingness. Our mom always wanted to make sure we had everything we needed from a young age to be able to succeed and blossom into thriving adults. No matter how hard things got, my mom would always see the positive in any situation. She knew things would be alright. That’s something I still try and practice every day. Read more>>

Patrick Bryant

If there is one fact that resonates, it’s that I would not be here without my parents. The notion seems obvious, but is easily overlooked and overshadowed sometimes. In my line of work, I often hear stories of how parents created great difficulty for my clients throughout childhood, sometimes into adulthood, through smothering, through neglect, through misattunement, through some form of maltreatment, Read more>>

Crystal Despain

My parents were and are so vital to my art life. Growing up I always had access to art supplies as well as music lessons. The arts were always treated with the same respect as STEM subjects. If my parents were ever afraid for me going into the arts I never caught on. As an adult they have watched my kids, attended shows, and shared my work on social media, whatever I have needed. Read more>>

Kayla Marmaros

I first want to normalize parents are not perfect. They are people. Humans. With emotions, feelings, maybe even traumas or experiences that shape them and leave them with things to work through. They make mistakes. Sometimes small, sometimes big. Sometimes forgivable, sometimes not. With that being said, I am fortunate enough to say the things that I believe to be impactful stem from my parents doing it right – and I know this because their words stuck with me through and through, Read more>>

Arthur Sagami

I’ve been very fortunate to have wonderful role models in my parents. Perhaps not what you might expect, I believe the greatest lessons I received from them weren’t from any single moment, or special event; rather, it was in the way that they went about their day-to-day life that has most impacted me. My Dad has always demonstrated patience, consistency, and inquisitiveness. For most of my life he worked at the same job, getting up before the sun is up, Read more>>