Two things:
The first is that, as a former teacher, I always believed that the environment was a lot more important than genetics and that children could be taught anything, if you did it right. My daughter spoke 4 languages before she could ever count to 5, despite my best efforts to teach her maths, loved astronomy and geography and hated dolls, loved the ballet but not pink, horses but not flowers, and enjoyed the cold more than the heat. Some of these things may coincide with my own preferences, but I don’t think she actually picked them up from me. Others make no sense at all, and I’m pretty sure they were inherent (albeit passed on genetically from me in the first place). She is a very stubborn child, and has been so from day 1 (I remember how she’d drink enormous amounts of milk in one gulp, but refuse a single drop after that). And she had a very strong sense of self, a powerful personality and a maturity way beyond her years. We could have a normal conversation by the time she was 1, and serious discussions by the time she was 3. And she still couldn’t count to 5.
The second thing is that I figured some of the things we get so worked up about don’t really matter. I was against using dummies (pacifiers in Americanese) and all for potty training early on. I’ve changed both views, and think that every child has its own needs which need to be respected. My daughter never breast-fed, and so dummies soothed her, especially since she was supposed to sleep alone (another thing I have come to question, and perhaps I should have allowed her to sleep with me, after all). And there’s no point pushing kids to do something they’re not ready for. My daughter would name all the countries in the EU with their capitals (which most adults here can’t), and then ask for a diaper change. That’s just the way kids are.
And you can never give a child too many hugs, too many kisses, too much love. That’s one thing I don’t regret. I always carried her whenever she wanted me to (usually on my shoulders), let her run when she felt like it, and had my arms ready for her whenever she needed them. I consider myself a very strict father when it comes to rules, especially ones to do with safety. But you can never love a child enough.