As a pediatrician I meet lots of ‘types’ of parent. I see many different ways of bringing up children and I see many children each with particular requirements and at times problems. I asked myself if the experience of having children is in some way useful in bringing up future children, if young parents feel more insecure and less confident than older ones and maybe need more counselling, if parents with many children end up knowing what to do in a sort of practice makes perfect. In sport, music, scientific research, commerce practice and experience are very useful. Whether you are a pediatrician, taxi driver or lawyer you are expected to have had a teacher and to have earned a degree or diploma. So maybe parents should at least go to preparatory courses especially if they have never had kids or are young. We all know that these suggestions are absurd and that the case of parents is different. Just think what a disaster it would be if future kids had some advantage over previous ones, if it paid to delay having children, if kids from small families were at a disadvantage respect to those from large ones. There should be no credits for writing on your CV: I am the tenth child of my family and my parents were sixty years old when I was born.