Tim Keller on Parenting

I've just finished Tim Keller's fine book The Reason for God. It's an excellent book that present reasons for the Christian faith in a new and smart ways. In the midst of his discussion on why Jesus had to die on the cross as our substiution, Keller presents a nugget on parenting:

"Children come into the world in a condition of complete dependence. They cannot operate as self-sufficient, independent agents unless their parents give up much of their own independence and freedom for years. If you don’t allow your children to hinder your freedom in work and play at all, and if you only get to your children when it doesn’t inconvenience you, your children will group up physically only. In all sorts of other ways they will remain emotionally needy, troubled, and overdependent. The choice is clear. You can either sacrifice your freedom or theirs. It’s them or you. To love your children well, you must decrease that they may increase. You must be willing to enter into the dependency they have so eventually they can experience the freedom and independence you have (194)."