Your children give you the opportunity to live up to their expectations. When they’re young, before you and life have had the time to disappoint them, they automatically assume wonderful things about you.  It’s a gift, and a challenge.  If you can meet their expectations – not all of them, but the important ones – then you get to learn more about who you are and about your own ability to love.  And, there just might be the additional gift that they’ll want to stay a part of your life when they no longer have to.