FROM THE PUBLISHER

Pat yourself on the back! You survived the harrowing sleepless nights nursing high fevers and waiting up for your kids to come home from their first date. Now it's time to sit back, relax, and reap the rewards of those countless Saturday mornings spent at the soccer field. Right? Wrong! Parenting doesn't automatically stop on a child's eighteenth birthday. Family for Life helps you figure out how much (or how little) advice, emotional support, and financial backing to offer your adult children. Kathy Peel, best-selling author and founder of Family Manager, Inc., draws from her three decades of professional and personal experience to guide you in your "new" role as a parent of grown children. She offers positive and practical ways to help your offspring become successful adults. Each chapter offers insightful ideas as well as helpful do's and don'ts.

SYNOPSIS

When the kids you told to Grow up! really do...

Pat yourself on the back! You survived the harrowing sleepless nights nursing high fevers and waiting up for your kids to come home from their first date. The hard part is over, and now it's time to sit back, relax, and reap the rewards of those countless Saturday mornings spent at the soccer field. Right? Wrong! Parenting doesn't automatically stop on a child's eighteenth birthday. Learn how much (or how little) advice, emotional support, and financial backing to offer adult children.

Kathy Peel, best-selling author and founder of Family Manager, Inc., draws from her three decades of professional and personal experience to guide you in your "new" role as parents of grown children. She offers positive and practical ways to help your offspring become successful adults. Each chapter offers insightful ideas as well as helpful do's and don'ts. You'll learn how to: Prepare kids to leave the nest and land on their feet Give support without becoming a full-time parent again Be a dreambuilder, not a dreambuster Repair relationships with older children and show love in ways that matter Make your home a magnet so older children want to come back to visit Deal with difficult in-laws Be a great grandmother Keep your clan connected as it expands Carve out time and space for yourself as you continue to care for others

Learn how to be a great mother for a lifetime with the sage advice found in Family for Life.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Although few books are available on the subject, we all know that the parent-child relationship lasts a lifetime. These two books contribute to our understanding of that relationship, although neither is a comprehensive study. In When Our Grown Kids Disappoint Us, Adams, who has a doctorate in psychology and has worked with families for two decades, takes a hard look at parenting children who fail to thrive as adults-e.g., who remain dependent on their parents well into their thirties, have substance abuse problems, or commit crimes-and offers advice to parents on breaking the cycle and developing lives of their own without breaking the bond with their child. Though she offers comfort and support to heartbroken parents, much of the book helps them learn how to hand the responsibility for their adult lives back to their children and let go of the guilt. In Family for Life, Peel, founder and president of Family Manager, Inc., and a frequent guest on Oprah, offers advice to parents of young adults as they make the transition from home to college or job, independent living, and establishing their own families. Her book suggests what practical life skills need to be taught (laundry, safety, and home repair), communication skills that can enhance the relationship, how to make a home adult children will want to visit, and how to take care of oneself. Most public libraries will want to purchase both of these titles, which serve the needs of two different audiences.-Kay Brodie, Chesapeake Coll., Wye Mills, MD Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.