from a previous post:
Starfish wrote: Even what's best for you children? When they grow up, it's up to them whether they respect you or can never forgive you for the choices you've made regarding them. If you have ever lied to your child, thinking it was for their own good, you were wrong. The day you had them was the day that you come second for the rest of your life. Parents may need support, but the children come first. I wish some of you could hear how selfish you sound.
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life looking 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. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. 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. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite and He bends you with his might that His arrows may go swift and fast. Let the bending of the Archer's hand be for gladness; for even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
- Kahlil Gibran
