From potty training to driver's training, parents are responsible for an exhaustive list of things to teach their children. If you're frustrated, bored or overwhelmed with the millions of things you have to teach your children, it helps to reflect on the many things your children have been busy teaching you.

Young children especially have the ability to greet any day with a smile on their face, regardless of the circumstances. They may already know they aren't going to get what they want for lunch or might end up in a time-out, but it doesn't stop them from trying to see the best in the day. Their gift for doing that should be a clue to how we should approach our day as adults and parents.

"Maybe the greatest privilege of being a parent is that you have a little teacher to pull you out of your mental rut and make you take a fresh look at things," says Dr. Jeff Richards, psychiatrist at Health Partners Clinic in Minneapolis, Minn. "If you can't do that, and find that your child's smile is not usually able to pull you out of your dark cloud, you might have a problem with depression. If so, getting treatment will benefit your child as well as you."

When most people think of parenting and patience, they think of obvious things like not losing your temper while your child is having a tantrum. But there are many ways that patience is demonstrated in parenting. Helping children with homework, chauffeuring children to and from various after-school activities and watching children claim their independence also takes a special kind of patience.

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