What does honouring involve?
The positive mitzva of honouring parents includes step parents as well as an older brother. Honouring parents specifically include giving them to eat and drink; clothing them and not embarrassing them in any way. Honouring them extends even after they die. Honouring a father supersedes a mother – thus if faced with a demand from a father and a different one from the mother simultaneously the father’s overrides and must be done first. However, if a parent instructs a child to do an aveira, sin, then the child must not listen to them. Parents can forgo on their honour.
The reasons behind the mitzva
Honouring parents is self understood. It is based on hakoras hatov, realising that our very existence only came about through our parents. Thus, all that we have belongs to them and we must therefore respect them.
How to live with this mitzva
Before coming in contact with parents one should think that is one about to do the mitzva of honouring parents. Then one should remind oneself the halochos relevant to this mitzva and prepare oneself for putting it into practice.