remembering your own childhood

i believe the best way to raise children is to try and remember your own childhood, what you liked and disliked, what you wanted and needed, and if you cant remember, discuss it with your own parents if you can.  Also having a great support system of family and friends helps, you will always need help and a shoulder to cry on.  When my children do something naughty or mischevious, i remember doing most of it myself or hear my family talking about another child doing a similar thing, then later when the kids arent around you have a chuckle to yourself and regret putting your own parents in similar situations.  Then you start remembering when yo hit your teenage years and imagine what your children will, or are, getting up to, hoping they will be sensible and not get into too much trouble, but then you also need to remeber this is how kids learn, just as we all did, from our own mistakes.  If kids dont get to make mistakes, they dont learn, i remeber alot of things i thought i got away with as a kid but parents know what going on, and sometimes realise they need to just take a step back and let kids experinence life.  That is one of my hardest challenges to date, letting my kids make their own mistakes and experience life without sheltering them too much.  There are a lot of parents who dont understand kids need someone to talk to, who will listen without judgement, this is hard but needed, just as much as dicipline and love.