Holding On While Letting Go

Harvard-trained psychologist and Psychology Today parenting expert Carl Pickhardt gives parents an eye-openinglook atwhat to expect on rocky road of middle school and high school,revealing the Four Freedoms that every child must master to become a healthy adult--and how parents can adapt, encourage, and grow themselves during these tumultuous times. Parenting a teenager is not for the faint of heart. It is during these roller-coaster years that frustrated parents find themselves at their wits' end, barely even recognizing their offspringas they move through the teen years. Carl Pickhardt, Harvard-trained psychologist and the voice of reason behind Psychology Today's advice column, "Surviving (Your Child's) Adolescence," shares critical insights and practicaltools that parents need to know as their children move through the teen yearstoward independence and adulthood. There's a reason the road is rocky--it's supposed to be. Children must pass through "four unfolding freedoms"in order to become competent, independent, and confident adults. How easily parents can navigatethese twists and turns with less hand-holding, angst, and hitting the brakesdirectly correlates to howsuccessful their children will be. The four unfolding freedoms are these: 1)freedom from rejection of childhood,around the late elementary school years, when they wantto stop acting and being treated as children anymore. 2) freedom of association withpeers, around the middle school years, when they want to form a second family of friends. 3) freedom for older experimentation, around the high school years, when they wantto try more grown-up activities. 4) freedom to claim emancipation, around the college age years, when theydecideto become their own ruling authority. With each successive push for freedom, both parents and teens need to learn how to do less holding on to each other while doing more letting go. Dr. Carl Pickhardt will show them the way with compassion, experience, and time-tested guidance.