Many American parents believe that their choices carve out their children’s futures. They seek expert advice to attempt to raise the happiest, most successful, and most well-adjusted leaders of tomorrow.

In Japan and Norway, parents are focused on cultivating independence.

• In Norway, most children enter state-sponsored daycare at 1 year old.
• In Japan, children run errands without parental supervision. The children take subways by themselves and walk on busy streets alone.

American parents focus on grooming their children's talents for success. Many Asian nations focus highly on academics, while the Dutch parents believe in not pushing their children too hard.

In Spain, families are focused on the social and interpersonal aspects of child development.

We can't desire to follow the parenting styles of Korean and Dutch and Japanese and Jewish and Norwegian and Spanish, all at once. The values are not the same.

Instead, we should be learning from each other and recognize that there are very different successful ways of raising children.