That parenting is the hardest job – and it is unpaid too – is not something that is being discovered now. But the more time passes and the way society is developing is making this “job”, if we can call it that way, even more difficult.

Most parents will tell you that holding a newly-born child in their arms is probably the best moment of their life. They would have prepared for the event for nine months, but the emotions cannot be described.

Having a child brings joy, but it also brings responsibility. And this commitment is for a lifetime. One does not stop being a parent not even when the children grow into adults. The thoughts and fears a parent has towards his or her offspring finish only with death.

Couples who have just had a child probably think that the most difficult years are the first one or two, when the child is totally depending on their care and support, when illnesses are common and when the child is practically in their presence 24 hours a day.

But they will soon learn that the more a child grows, the more the problems increase. The first day of school is the first detachment from the family circle as the child starts his or her integration into society.

Giving a child a solid education is one of the major duties parents have, and they have to give it in collaboration with other educators – those at school and also other people the children come in contact with, be they football coaches or dance teachers.

Further years down the line, other problems crop up. The teenage years, when the child is moving towards adulthood, are probably the most difficult. Parents want to let go, and allow the child to develop by learning through experience, and yet most of them hold on, and this leads to clashes.

Peer pressure increases, as youngsters are often influenced by what others of the same age are doing, and it is not easy for parents – who have a different mentality and a different upbringing too – to accept that the young people of today are different from the young people they had been. The exigencies are different, the way of life is totally different, the problems they face different too.

Fears that a teenage son or daughter will lose his or her friends if one is too strict with them will push parents into relaxing their hold, but the fears remain. Many spend sleepless nights waiting for the sound of the key opening the front door, and parents sigh in relief and make believe they are asleep as the youngster silently walks to the bedroom as the dawn breaks.

The youngsters grow into adults, and the next worry is whether they will find a job to their liking and whether they will find love, in whatever form it can come. The move out of the house where they were brought up is a heart-breaking experience too, whenever that comes. And the concerns double up if and when the parents become grandparents too.

Parents will, however, remain parents all their life, even when their children no longer live with them and have a life of their own. The bond that links a parent to a child lasts forever.

Most couples will tell you that life changes not when they get married or settle down in a relationship, but when their children are born. And since parenting skills are not taught but gained through experience, many mistakes are committed. What is important is that lessons are learnt from these mistakes, although this is much easier to say than to do.

Having children can be seen as a way of prolonging one’s life through them. But, looking back, will you have children again?