Our children are gifts entrusted to us not as objects to be controlled but as human beings, each unique in their own personality, each separate in their own identity. Consider these words from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran: 

“You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

Your may house their bodies but not their souls,

For they dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goest not backwards nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are set forth.”