Umm, I don't think I want to be a parent

Ooops, too late.

Isn't that how it is? -- after the kids are grown you finally figure out the big picture

The children will have years of exposure to what the universe is like before they know there is a universe. They will experience the kind of authority there is in the universe and the kind of justice there is in the universe and the kind of love there is in the universe before they meet the God of authority and justice and love who created and rules of the universe...

That was suppossed to come from me!  That's what parenting is -- or should be...

Children are absorbing from dad his strength and leadership and protection and justice and love; and they are absorbing from mother her care and nurture and warmth and intimacy and justice and love—and, of course, all these overlap.

Yikes!  Thank God for grace.

It sounds like a whole 'nother burden added to parenting.  But, I don't think it's an extra thing tacked on to all the other parenting duties -- it's done as you go and do everything else. 

John Piper is writing a book on marriage; here's more of the excerpt Children Understand the Universe Before They Know There Is One.