Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They came 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 house their bodies but not their souls.

by Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931), Syrian writer and painter, in The Prophet  (1923) 'On Children'