What Makes a Perfect Parent?

While reading Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner something that stood out to me was how experts have deemed what makes a parent perfect. As Dubner and Levitt went through a list of 16 factors eight of which were strongly correlated with high test scores and the other eight not so much. As they listed the factors i was making guesses on which ones were strongly correlated and i was about half wrong.  The eight factors that were strongly correlated with high test scores were: (Dubner, Levitt, 168-169)

The child...

Has highly educated parents

Parents have high socioeconomic status

Mother was thirty or older at the time of her first child's birth

Has low birthweight

Parents speak english in the home

Is adopted

Parents are involved in the PTO

Has many books in his home

Most of the list i predicted in being strongly correlated with test scores but some that stood out to me that were not strongly related were:

The Child's family is intact

The Child's mother didn't work between birth and kindergarten

The Child's parents read to him nearly every day

These were the three that stood out to me the most in the non correlated list. The child's family being intact was astonishing to me because I always thought children coming from a broken home would have a harder time learning and getting better grades. As this study shows though that is not true. Family's without an intact family are actually just as likely to get high test scores. The other two are common things that parents do because they think it is bettering the child. Having the mother quite work for a couple years to be with her son or daughter and help in the development of their kids. It really does not matter though in this study it suggests going to work in those years and making money rather than being home with the child. Reading to a child every night is what most parents do at a young age to make sure their brain is developing in a strong way to get them ready for schooling and testing. This also does not matter and to be the perfect parent it isn't so much about being concerted cultivation it is much more about the natural growth of the child.