I come from a family where my parents both worked outside the home. Until my two sisters and I were old enough to take care of ourselves, we had a baby sitter in the home. When I got married at the age of 20, I knew very little about what it means to be a parent. My new wife and I soon started learning the hard way when we had our first child within the first year we were married.

By the way, I am in my mid-50s. We eventually had five children and in the course of raising them, we made a lot of mistakes. I eventually went on to complete a degree in Child Development where I learned a lot that I wished I had known when I started my family. But one of the things that I learned was that very few people get formal training in being a parent. We parent the way we were parented for the most part.

Another interesting fact that has come out of studies is that successful parenting has no correlation with whether or not both parents worked outside the home or not. There is also no correlation to whether or not the family is of the traditional model. However, there is a tie to how involved the parent is in the child's life.