The bulk of your post doesn't really have anything to do with the title. Anyway, the answer to the question depends in large part on what kind of person the parent is and what kind of person the child is. Personally, I think you can't go wrong with teaching children principles, strong conviction, courtesy and social skills. As far as principles are concerned, I think a parent must take great care to ensure no question the child has lacks a satisfactory answer, but then again, not all children are all that interested in questioning things and not all parents share the same parenting style. As for everything else, the child should figure things out on its own through trial and error, and occasionally with the help of advice when the issue is important - this is how character is built.