Certainly my parents were a huge influence. They always expected the most out of all of us. And expected us to do our very best. I'm thankful to them for allowing me to do what I wanted to do.

Research shows that parents are the single biggest influence on children - if you are worried about your teen and drugs talk to them.

Doesn't matter whether it's a teen girl who's pregnant hasn't told her parents or an elderly couple dealing with one of them being diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Those are real people to me. Those are the people I dealt with every single day.

If we as a nation are to break the cycle of poverty crime and the growing underclass of young people ill equipped to be productive citizens we need to not only implement effective programs to prevent teen pregnancy but we must also help those who have already given birth so that they become effective nurturing bonding parents.

The most important role models should and could be parents and teachers. But that said once you're a teenager you've probably gotten as much of an example from your parents as you're going to.

Heredity is what sets the parents of a teenager wondering about each other.

I try to be careful because technology changes so much over the years. But some things don't change. Kids and parents have disagreements kids try to manipulate parents try to sit down with rules and regs. That part never changes.

As children many of us were taught never to talk to strangers. As parents and grandparents our message must change with technology to include strangers on the Internet.

So many times these kids know more about the technology than their parents. And so many times we're putting kids in very adult situations and expecting them to behave like they're 40 years old. Well that's just not going to happen.

As a teacher myself I've been in situations where parents come at you and sometimes parents come across like the teacher doesn't want the best for their kid and it can be really really hurtful.

If you put down a list of jobs doctor lawyer janitor teacher or movie star everybody would pick the movie star. And why? So you could lie around the pool drink margaritas and send money to your parents. So that's what I did.

My name is James Edward Franco. Ted is a nickname for Edward. That's what my parents called me. I also got 'Teddy Ruxpin' a lot. It just got to a point where I got sick of it so when a teacher called out 'James Franco' my junior year of high school I didn't correct her.

As a teacher you can see the difference in kids who have parents who were involved. That difference by the time these kids get to the third grade is drastic.

I think my parents were happy that I'd gone to university and gotten a degree in history so they thought 'Well if acting doesn't work for him he can always become a history teacher or something.' Fortunately the acting worked out.

I was attending the University of Alberta. I was going to be a high school teacher like my parents. I failed - no I didn't fail a class I just barely passed. I really didn't try. It was Canadian history through the plays of the time. My God those were boring plays.

My parents were early converts to Christianity in my part of Nigeria. They were not just converts my father was an evangelist a religious teacher. He and my mother traveled for thirty-five years to different parts of Igboland spreading the gospel.

Look if you ask a child 'Would you rather have a fulfilled mother or a stay-at-home Sylvia Plath ' they'll pick Sylvia Plath every time. But I think it's really important that children don't feel their parents' emotional lives depend on their success.

I feel lucky because I was a nerd which I talk about in the book but I had academic success so through that because that's what my parents put a great deal of value on I had a great childhood because I sort of fulfilled the expectations of being good at school.

I had a lot of encouragement and tolerance from my parents but I also have many friends who didn't get that from their parents and in a way they have more strength from spending years where nobody believed in them.

The water cooler conversation in every job I've had is sports it's what did you do this weekend it's 'How are your parents doing?'

I hate the cliche of 'just have fun ' but what I've seen in today's sports especially with parents is they put so much pressure on the kids.

Part of my growing up was always trying to make my parents proud and always trying to keep them happy. I think part of what held them together was my involvement in sports.

As a result of Title IX and a new generation of parents who want their daughters to have the opportunities they never had women's sports have arrived.

I think it is that parents just don't kick their kids out the door as much as they used to. I think the demise of sandlot sports has had a lot to do with it.