Your Children

Here is a line from a poem by Kahlil Gibran that a friend sent while I cribbed to her about feeling 'pinned down' by parents:
'Your children are not your children
They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself'
Why cant all parents realise this? Why cant they understand that their children are not 'wrong' when they refuse to walk on paths parents choose for them?
Indeed they are not wrong...they are just different.
Why not accept that they are different than spend a lifetime complaining about the children gone 'astray'?
Parents are people and have their own prejudices. They hold onto ideas strongly and impose them on others. That's how people are! They constantly want to make others like themselves...and their own children are not spared. They want to see others more like themselves. Some are left with frustrations and unfulfilled dreams of their own life and want their children to inherit the responsibilty of attaining those unattained goals. Is this fair? May be its not a problem if children dont resist it. But what about those children who want to have their very own goals?
So what should ideal parents be like? Not teach anything with the fear of transmitting their own prejudices? No that's not what I am suggesting. All I am saying is that parents should bring their children up in a detached sort of a way...they should not decide before the seedling grows if it is going to bear apples or oranges.
Maybe a balance is needed. A balance that cannot come without children and parents laying down their egos. Why should there be a generation gap (or any gap for that matter) if people can clearly communicate their minds and are, at the same time open to understanding another's predicament?