I was talking with my parents the other day about this idea of not using guilt in our relationships, especially the relationships between parents and grown children. My mom, who happened to be in a hospital bed at the moment with wicked bronchitis, perked up when the topic of parents using guilt arose. She gathered […]

Point #7 in my Top Ten List for Parenting Young Adults is No Guilt. Do not try to make your kids feel guilty about the amount of time they spend or don't spend with you. It doesn't work. "Ok," you might say … "If I can't use guilt, what do I do instead? What if […]

Moving on the #7 of my Top 10 List for Parents of Adult Kids … #7 - No Guilt! Parents, do not make your adult children feel guilty about how much time they spend with you. Guilt never works. It almost always creates the opposite of the desired outcome. Trying to induce guilt is a […]

One final thought about listening in the journey of parenting adult kids … Carl Rogers, a great twentieth century psychotherapist wrote: "The great majority of us cannot listen; we find ourselves compelled to evaluate, because listening is too dangerous. The first requirement is courage, and we do not always have it." Why are we tempted […]

Some more thoughts on #8 of my Top 10 List for Parenting Young Adults … #8 Listen Now, here's the truth: We parents of young adults have some wisdom; the hard-earned kind, the kind that comes from livin' life. It is a good thing to want to share some of that wisdom with the humans […]

Still working my way through my top 10 list about parenting young adults … Now, turning my attention to point #8 - Listen (or try to become a good listener) This seems to me, based on conversations I had after my teaching on this topic, to be one of the hardest things for parents of […]