Your children will be the cause of the best and worst moments of your life for the next decade or two. You'll love some of it more than any other experience that you have ever had. And also hate it at other times. You'll wonder when it will get better (it will), yet miss the days when they were little.

And at the end of it, you have a family to grow old with, and it is worth it.

But that is also the key to remember - it is not your goal as parents to raise children, nor to control who they are. Instead, it is your goal to raise adults, who can direct their own lives successfully. Their childhood and adolescence is just the learning curve you are helping them get through so they can go be their own person.