Family is the first school where a child receives his/her own basic life values. It is a place where a child aquires some elementary social skills, specifically the skills of communicating, accepting, giving and receiving. Parents are the first and the most important child's teachers. They bear a great responsibility and a task to recognise the child's needs and provide him with an upbringing in accordance with moral principles, values and norms. Preschool period is a very sensitive time in a child's life, a time when he/she develops intensively and imitates older ones who must be a good and exemplary role model to provide favorable conditions for the child's growth. After the end of the preschool period, starting school is the next essential time in a child's life and it represents a big step for the child, as well as for the parents. It symbolises the end of the carefree childhood and an entrance into a world of new experiences, adventures and challenges. The aim of this thesis is to explore, both theoreticaly and empirically, the parent role in preparing a child for starting elementary school. The interviewing method was used to gather data for this research. The questionnaires were conducted in two elementary schools on a pattern of 140 parents of 1st grade pupils. The aim of the thesis is, also, to examine the assessments of parents about the importance of preparing their child for starting school, about the relevance of their role in the development of child's skills and knowledge, as well as the influence of family atmosphere and the development of socio-emotional competences before the actual start of schooling, further more to investigate the differences in listed assessments considering certain socio-demografic variables. Based on the results of the research we can conclude that parents, to a large degree, show positive assessments about the family atmosphere and the relationship to their own child as an important factor in their child's starting school. It is visible through the result representation that the parents show positive assessments about the importance of stimulating child's socio-emotional development and that they invest plenty of time and effort, in other words their actions make them involved in the development of socio-emotional competences of their own child. The interviewed parents, also to a large degree, show positive assessments about their role in the development of child's knowledge and skills. Regarding parent assessment about the factors that influenced the most in preparing their child for starting school, the majority of parents consider that kindergarten significately contributed in preparing for school. Based on the conducted research it is concluded that parents are aware of their own role and responsibility in preparing a child for schooling and that they spend time actively with their children encouraging the development of socio-emotional competences as well as skills and knowledge necessary for starting school.