Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts,  For they have their own thoughts. ... You may strive to be like them,  but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. ... Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness.
 

Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)