How Children Raise Successful Parents (Or Lessons I've Learned from My Kids) “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 thoughts of their own.” ~ Kahlil Gibran, Prophet (1966, Knopf) When I first read the Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, I wasn't a parent. When I became a parent and reread the classic, I considered it impractical for raising children. Bows? Arrows? What has that to do with raising children? My daughter's adolescence changed all that. During this period in her life, my child decided that she had learned enough to exercise her rights as a human being. She made her choices. She made decisions, but oh did she make mistakes. Needless to say, the mistakes almost cost us our relationship. Mind you, before this period we were the epitome
