As parents, there is much that we can -- and should -- learn from contemporary research. But among the many secrets of happy families, there are still some that are simple and timeless.

The major criterion for inclusion in this set of questions was that they test knowledge of things that children could not possibly have learned first hand.

Encourage your children to go to college. If you can, save a little -- or a lot -- to help them with the financial burden that being a student brings. Make sure they know that you value a college degree from early on.

Tolstoy was right. Happy families do have certain things in common. Today we finally have the knowledge to know what those things are.

Through all the dark shadows that Russia has cast with its ban on adoptions by Americans -- on the affected girls and boys, on the U.S. citizens seeking to become their parents and on the process of international adoption itself -- a thin glimmer of light is struggling to emerge.

I dread the day when my daughter is too cool to give me kisses and my son would rather play basketball with his friends than hang out with his mom. But even when they complain, I'll be forcing the tradition of family days.

What will we leave our children when we're gone? Most of us will leave pictures and scrapbooks; echoes of their lives and our own. We can all leave something else that's just as precious -- a taste of who we are and where we came from.