Your children are not your children; they are the sons and daughters of Life.

They come into the world through you, not from you. And although they are with you, they do not belong to you.

You may be able to give them your love, but not your thoughts, because they have thoughts of their own.

You may be able to provide a home for their bodies, but not for their souls, because their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow—a tomorrow you cannot see, even in your dreams.

You may try to become like them, but do not ask them to become like you, because life does not go backward and has no business with yesterday. You are the bow, and your children are the arrows of life sent forth from that bow.

Khalil Gibran