The Parent Trap

COKIE ROBERTS

With her mother, Lindy Boggs

I certainly agree that genes have a great deal to do with it. What's always striking to parents who have more than one child is that children are who they are from the moment they appear, and you get to know their personalities very quickly. They are very different from each other, and that clearly started before the nurturing began. But I also think that children who have attentive parents learn from their parents all kinds of behavior. Everything from good table manners--which count, by the way--to how to be a good husband or wife. I think children take their examples from their parents even when they don't realize they're doing it. Raise children you like because if you don't like them, nobody else will, and you're going to have to spend the rest of your life with them. Teach them to be likable.

ROSIE O'DONNELL

Adoption is just the beginning

You're born with a personality that's defined by the tenderness, love, support and care you're given. My 3-year-old son, who is growing up in my family with the values that I show him through example, is so similar to me. And I don't think that's a coincidence. He's learned to quote "The Lion King." I laugh and encourage him. Children could just be born and put in day care and become who they are. But that negates the value of love.