I would say do not lose sight of the big picture. The topmost responsibility of parents is: To prepare them for adult-hood.
The following cross-cuts anything the child decides to do in future:
1. Being mentally tough
* Dealing with success & failures
* Dealing with conflicts
2. Money
* Importance of money & saving
* Importance of investing
3. Communication skills
* Focus on effectiveness of communication
* Importance & ability to sell
Edit: Its fine that as a parent you might not be well versed with all of the above. I am certainly not. Learn along with them. I make my deficiency in certain things e.g ability to sell as example to my kids to not to become like me.
Edit2:
If you have male child:
* Teach them how to be respectful towards women
If you have girl child:
* Teach them to be financially independent
To both:
* Teach them that beauty is not permanent. It has short shelf-life and it quickly loses its utility after ~35. All that remains in later age is personality.
I strongly agree with the last points. My daughter is a very pretty and stylish engineer that has built a firm financial foundation and has no debts. Because of this, she is free to take risks that others can only dream of.
I agree especially with #1. You can see the children that were never told no and never challenged. They fail spectacularly when mom and dad aren't their to hold their hand in the real world.
The following cross-cuts anything the child decides to do in future:
1. Being mentally tough
2. Money 3. Communication skills Edit: Its fine that as a parent you might not be well versed with all of the above. I am certainly not. Learn along with them. I make my deficiency in certain things e.g ability to sell as example to my kids to not to become like me.Edit2:
If you have male child:
If you have girl child: To both: