Empty Nest: What's Next?: Parenting Adult Children Without Losing Your Mind

The purpose of Empty Nest, What's Next? is to help parents adjust to their changing roles as parents of adult children. Unlike the first eighteen years of parenting, moms and dads now take on more of an advisory role and step out of the daily hands-on instructional role. In theory, this stepping to the sidelines parenting style should lead to a simpler, less stress-free life for the parents. However, real-life parenting young adults is often much more challenging than all the earlier years put together. Combine young adult immaturity with a dangerous world, and parents frequently find themselves beset with worry, fear, and anxiety. Intellectually letting go is one thing; emotionally letting go is much more difficult, especially when the consequences are adult sized. This resource will offer parents true stories of other moms and dads who are facing the very same challenges. Parents will discover a biblical model of faith-inspiring exercises that enable them to not simply cope with the demands of parenting their young adult children, but also to find peace, freedom, and joy in the process. Empty Nest, What's Next? will offer encouragement, practical suggestions, and lots of comical asides to the always-evolving role of parenting. Table of Contents: 1. Entering the Empty Nest (or Almost There) 2. Accepting that Parenting Mistakes Are Done Deals 3. Keeping First Things First Faith Then Family 4. Learning to Step Back and Occasionally Advise 5. Riding the Emotional Roller Coaster 6. Recognizing that Adult Children Make Adult-Sized Mistakes 7. Welcoming Your Children s Future Dates and Mates 8. Recreating Your Life with Children on the Sidelines 9. Reinvesting in Your Marriage 10. Viewing Your Adult Children as Peers and Equals 11. Twisting the Plot You re a Grandparent 12. Stepping in to Parent Your Grandchildren in a Crisis 13. Building Good Relationships with Your Children s In-Laws 14. Redefining Your Role in Life Now 15. Letting Adult Children Become Fiscally Responsible 16. Reinventing Life Goals from Midlife and Beyond 17. Helping Adult Children Endure the Difficult Seasons of Life 18. Having Fun Even When Your Adult Children Have Problems 19. Welcoming Untimely Interruptions 20. Supporting Your Adult Children through a Crisis 21. Giving Counsel When Your Adult Children Want to Give Up 22. Investing in People Other than Your Adult Children 23. Allowing Adult Children to Move Back Home 24. Banishing Worry for Good 25. Applying Tough Love as Needed 26. Being Hopeful When Your Adult Child s Life Falls Apart 27. Praying for Something You Can t Talk About 28. Asking for Forgiveness as Needed 29. Learning from Your Adult Children with Grace 30. Loving Them Unconditionally

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