Doing Life with Your Adult Children: Keep Your Mouth Shut and the Welcome Mat Out

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars | 3,526 ratings

Price: 14.95

Last update: 12-23-2024


About this item

Are you struggling to connect with your child now that they've left the nest? Are you feeling the tension and heartache as your relationship dynamic begins to change? In Doing Life with Your Adult Children, bestselling author and parenting expert Jim Burns provides practical advice and hopeful encouragement for navigating this tough yet rewarding transition.

If you've raised a child, you know that parenting doesn't stop when they turn eighteen. In many ways, your relationship gets even more complicated--your heart and your head are as involved as ever, but you can feel things shifting, whether your child lives under your roof or rarely stays in contact.

Doing Life with Your Adult Children helps you navigate this rich and challenging season of parenting. Speaking from his own personal and professional experience, Burns offers practical answers to the most common questions he's received over the years, including:

  • My child's choices are breaking my heart--where did I go wrong?
  • Is it OK to give advice to my grown child?
  • What's the difference between enabling and helping?
  • What boundaries should I have if my child moves back home?
  • What do I do when my child doesn't seem to be maturing into adulthood?
  • How do I relate to my grown child's significant other?
  • What does it mean to have healthy financial boundaries?
  • How can I support my grown children when I don't support their values?

Including positive principles on bringing kids back to faith, ideas on how to leave a legacy as a grandparent, and encouragement for every changing season, Doing Life with Your Adult Children is a unique book on your changing role in a calling that never ends.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.


Top reviews from the United States

  • Harold Kooistra
    5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding book for a Church Small Group or class
    Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2024
    I used this book to lead a small group at my church for 18 parents with adult children and we all thoroughly enjoyed the book. It’s a great treatment of the issues related to parenting our adult children. The questions included at the end are extremely helpful and led to lively discussions.
  • Camille Block
    5.0 out of 5 stars I wish I read sooner!
    Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2024
    I didn't know I needed this book until I made all the mistakes as a mother of adult kids. I just read it this year and wish I had started it 10 years ago. It is so practical, non-judgmental and full of wisdom. I would say it would be best to start reading this BEFORE your kids turn 18, not after. And then re-read it again when they are in their early twenties. Well written, easy read but profound advice.
  • Tiffany
    5.0 out of 5 stars Love the author’s perspective
    Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2024
    After hearing a YouTube excerpt from this author on this topic taken from a presentation he did at a conference, I decided to order the book. My husband and I have two teen boys, one of which is turning 18 in a month. We have been struggling with him and his very independent and somewhat rebellious (to authority) personality, and haven’t been sure how to enter this early adulthood stage with a kid who still has a lot of maturing to do, but will be an adult, still under our roof for awhile, and trying to navigate the messiness that our society is right now. This book has really helped shine some light on what works and what doesn’t. Written from a Biblical standpoint, and by a man who has been there with his own children, I have gained quite a few tips that I have already been employing as I try to parent my almost adult boy into manhood with the easiest and less traumatic transition possible for all. Some of the advice is hard to hear and the exact opposite of what my instinct is to do, but all perspectives and consequences of certain approaches are explained so well that I find myself mentally referencing what I read as my day goes by.
  • GK
    4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent IF your adult kids are younger....
    Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2024
    This book is written more for the adult children who are entering into "adulthood" - like 19-27 perhaps - NOT those that have already established a family and their own "thing". Good information - but too late for our kids and us...
  • Donna Behan
    5.0 out of 5 stars A must read!
    Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2024
    This book is great! I read it in one night! This is a book that I have reread and shared with others. It offers sound advice.
  • JT
    5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for todays understanding of emerging adults
    Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2024
    This book is so appropriate for learning about todays emerging adults. Understanding their culture and their beliefs is so eye opening. The Boomer Culture and the Gen Z and Gen X Culture is very different. Until there is an understanding of the difference, it is difficult to relate to your younger adult. Making that transistion from Adult to Adult takes practice, patience, and as Jim says many time "biting your tongue". Easy to read with all the necessary "hot buttons" to learn.
  • JW
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very helpful
    Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2024
    This book has a lot of insights and wisdom in dealing with your adult children. It help me put things in perspective, encouraged me that we were doing some things the right way, and gave good solutions and ideas for areas we were struggling. I really appreciate the insights from this author. No one really prepares you for having adult children and this book helped a lot.
  • dawn
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book
    Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2024
    I have listened to and read this book. Great insights and thoughts to ponder. Much to walk away with. Great examples as well. This is a book that I have reccomended to many and even used for a women's prayer gathering to pray for our adult children and selves.

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