It often seems like it's the job of a parent to know everything and anything, but that's just not realistic.
There will be many times when a mum or dad is unsure of an answer or even how to handle a situation and they'll want to seek help and advice from others.
One parent has recently found herself in a situation like this, after discovering she was pregnant in her late 40s.
The unnamed mum wrote into Slate.com's Care and Feeding advice column to share how she and her husband had made the difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy - and lied to their teenage daughter about it.
The parent doesn't want to be dishonest with her daughter but claims she is unsure what to do now.
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She explained: "A couple months ago my husband and I, both in our mid-to-late 40s, learned we were pregnant. Having assumed I was too old to conceive, this came as a huge shock.
"I have to admit that it was also an unwelcome one. Outside of being at ages where we consider ourselves too old to start over as parents, with two adult children and one in her early teens, the pregnancy also would’ve derailed our future plans. As soon as our youngest is in college, we had plans to sell our home and use the money that we saved up over the last two decades to travel together. We also feared consequences to me giving birth at my age.
"For these reasons, we terminated the pregnancy.
"Unfortunately, I didn’t take out the trash, and our youngest child saw the positive test."
Their daughter, who they called Kelly, has since been asking questions about why her mother isn't "showing".
In the moment, not wanting to tell her daughter the truth, she simply said that all pregnancies "differ" from woman to woman.
But now she and her husband are conflicted over whether to tell their kids the truth.
She continues to say: "My husband thinks we should just go along with the misunderstanding and pretend to miscarry later on. I, however, don’t feel comfortable lying about that because I have known women who suffered miscarriages and would feel guilty.
"I think my husband just fears that he’ll be judged for not wanting another child; Kelly can admittedly be rash and unforgiving at her age. My concern is that if we stick to the lie, in a few years when we go ahead with our travels Kelly might figure out we lied to her. What do we do? Is it appropriate to tell a teenager that you got an abortion?"
The agony aunt is firm in their response that "honest is the best policy".
They state that while this is a horrible decision to have to make, if Kelly were to find out the truth later down the road, or from someone else, it could destroy their relationship.
The reply adds: "I’m a firm believer that she’ll love you more for respecting her enough to come clean. She may call you names and be hurtful, but you just have to take a deep breath and not take it personally. And who knows? She may not take it as badly as you think she might.
"To me, pretending you had a miscarriage is a bad look. My family dealt with two of them, and I wouldn’t wish that pain upon my worst enemy."
Do you agree with this advice? Let us know in the comments below.
