Brene Brown

Somewhere buried deep inside our hopes and fears for our children is the terrifying truth that there is no such thing as perfect parenting and there are no guarantees. From debates about attachment parenting and how much better they parent in Europe to disparagement of "tiger moms" and helicopter parents, the heated discussions that occupy much of the national parenting conversation conveniently distract us from this important and difficult truth: Who we are and how we engage with the world are much stronger predictors of how our children will do than what we know about parenting.

Brené Brown, Daring Greatly

There is so much to learn, do, and understand when contemplating becoming a parent. Brown points out that all these pale in comparison to be actually being there and modeling what you want your children to become in the future. It's both a relief (that one doesn't have to know everything) but also a burden (since how good a parent you are is actually predicated on how good a person you are or try to be).