Helping your child move from childhood to adulthood can be a challenging process. It can also be one of the most rewarding times in your relationship. Learning to relate to your child as an adult can be a long process, but the resulting relationship will be well worth it.
Be Open to Change
Your child may have wanted to be a teacher since age six, but once college hits, these things can always change. Maybe your child has just discovered a love of anthropology and now wants to work in a museum. The best thing a parent can do for their young adult is to be supportive through changes of plans. Young adults still have a lot to discover and are entitled to change their minds a few times along the way. The same goes for relationships, breakups, and long-time friends who may fall in and out of each others’ lives. Your best call is to never question or pry, simply ask good questions and offer your support.
Learn to Relate as Adults
You can share home improvement stories and nightmares with your new homeowner, recipes and kitchen disasters with your budding chef, and begin to relate to your child in a new way as they explore life on their own. When you keep communication open, this can be a fun and interesting time. It’s time for you to be there to answer questions if they ask, but be open to learning things from your child too.
Enjoy Changing Dynamics
Don’t get bogged down by the relationships that you had with your children as teenagers or the roles that each child fell into when they all lived at home. As children leave home and grow up, things will change, and while it’s tempting to expect the same old dynamics to continue, they rarely do. Give them space to grow and you’ll open up an entire world of new dynamics within your same old family.
