"Your children will make many demands
upon your time and energy.
'Do this for us
Buy this for us.'
They believe that these things
are what they want from you.
And you may begin
to believe it too.

But what they really want
is your innermost heart,
given in vulnerable, honest love.
This is not given
by doing or buying.
The more you do,
the less gets done.
The more you buy,
the less you have.
But if you reveal
your true nature,
you provide them everything.

Of course there are times,
when I do for my children.
It is often my great pleasure.
But the things remembered,
the treasured moments
of sacred time,
have occurred
in the quiet
of gentle conversation,
and honest sharing."

~from The Parent's Tao Te Ching by William Martin