I have been thinking a lot about that as well. My parents did a lot of things right, I think, but am I building my entire parenting philosophy off of a reaction to my parents'? If I am, I do not think that is wise. For example, it seems common that overprotective parents will raise rather under-protective parents who raise overprotective parents and so on and so forth. If all we did was react to our parents, every other generation would just repeat itself and there would be no progress, no legacy (I'm oversimplifying). As a devout Christian, I believe my parenting philosophy should be based off the principles in scripture instead. Even if you are not one for faith, it would be wise to read books like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes that contain timeless advice on how to raise a child, among other things (they were written by a Father to his son). My hope is that I can humbly set aside my self-centered annoyances with some of my parents' methods and have a clear head about what truly is best for my son. For me, this will take a lot of prayer.