For the Parents.

So often, parents confuse tough love with regular love. Yes you push a child towards greatness, you give them responsibility to prepare them for the future and you raise them to know nothing in the world is free and it's a hard place. But you also have to remember that life is going to be hard and disapproving of them, it's going to chew them up and spit them out, persons will care about there feelings, so give them all the love you can at home, so that at least they have those memories, and if your parents didn't do it for you, make the extra effort to do it for your children. Yes they disappoint sometimes but that's not always their fault, remember you're the parent, and you do have to take some responsibility for how they grow up, yes they may be influenced but if you instil good qualities in them and show them that you do love them, they'll be on the right track.
DO  NOT assume that your child knows that you love them, do not think that your child knows your "tough love" really means that you love them and you want what's best, do not make the same mistakes your parents did. 
Whilst God protects and all that, DO NOT think that he will raise your child, he had you make him/her for a reason, if there was no real purpose for a parent, we would all be put here as grown ups. or drop from the sky to fend for ourselves, do not give your child all the responsibilities in the damn world because you are lazy, because responsibility makes you feel grown up, makes you think that you are older than you  are, because you have grown up, so when he/ she acts like a grown man/woman, remember that is on you, and when we're grown, we do grown up things. 
Speak to your children, don't be an abuser/Drill Sargent, be a friend and a parent. Listen, be there and show them that you care, form a bond in which your child feels that he/she can come to you with any problem. So many of us lack that, and that's why parents don't have a clue, until it's too late.
Do  not think that by not allowing your child the freedom to go anywhere and hang out with friends, that you  are preventing anything, because really, you're making it worst. I am so sure that you did so many things behind your parents backs because they wouldn't let you, you may regret it now, but it's your mistakes, let your child have theirs, and chances are that they won't be as bad, because you actually allow it. Quit playing like you were perfect, because you weren't. Give them the childhood that you wanted to have.