The most important parenting tip not drain your wallet, but is expensive.

It takes years of parental education, but is actually quite instinctive.

The most important parenting tip is simple, but profound. You can start using it today and expect almost immediate results.

After more than two decades of experience as a parent, I can say that the most important parenting tip I have discovered is simply "being there". "Being there" has become my most fundamental concept of parenting.

- Be there when ... are just babies and need to be embraced for the umpteenth time in a day.

- Be there ... then they are young children and the need to read a book of them, calmly, so they can settle into bed.

- Be there ... when preschoolers and fall down the slide on the playground.

- Be there ... when they are in elementary school and his three best friends desert them at once.

- Be there ... when they are in middle school and some the damage can not fix themselves.

- Be there ... when they are teenagers and need to talk at 10 pm three nights a week.

- Be there ... when they are college age, and sometimes just listen to mom or dad's voice, because nothing goes as planned.

Just being there.

Being there physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, spiritually, and relational.

Be there because it works.

A word of warning about this parenting tip. Your children can tell when you're "being there" with them or when their attention is wandering. If you need to be doing something else, then I say, and do it. But when you're with them, be with them. The child who feels he or she is special enough to be important for at least a human being is a child who grows well established and secure in a stable environment. (For more tips for parents on the basis of "being there", see the resource box following this article.)

Being there is a costly strategy in a world distracted. Your children and you know your time is valuable and that says a lot about them when they see that you put aside your own needs and give their time and their own place.

And please, I'm not talking about spoiling your child. This is not to give each of its demand for attention, time or money. Not at all.

I'm talking to assume its responsibilities as a parent. Even when it is inconvenient. Even when you're tired. Especially when it means sacrifice.

I'm talking about doing the right thing.

That's another way of understanding the most important parenting tip of all.