Parents of Adult Children
PARENTS OF ADULT CHILDREN: You Are Not Alone
“How to Make Any Family Relationship Better”
PRAISE FROM PARENTS
for Barbara’s Blog
“Thank you for your blog, Barbara. My children are wonderful, loving 40-something adults, but parenting instincts persist and complicate matters when not held in check, and our feelings can be hurt when our advice isn’t appreciated. Having you and your psychological experts address this complicated part of our lives in detail is invaluable.”
--A.L.
“I so enjoy POGO. It fills a need that is often not met, specifically, to receive sound insights, approaches, and advice for our age segment and, equally, to express one’s stance on important family issues. I find most valuable the topics of money (in all its manifestations), grandchild rearing, and lifestyle.”
--P.D.
“Terrific! I look forward to every issue.”
--H.C.
“Barbara, I’m in awe of your posts. Using the literature sources that are out there and on-line is a brilliant solution to this obvious need. Keep on keeping on.”
--D.B.
“Thank you for your blog. It is so reassuring, not only in terms of offspring, but also siblings who we had trouble relating to or living with. It seems so appropriate to blame ourselves, but knowing there is concrete evidence that so much is genetic is comforting.”
--G.Y.
Santa Barbara, CA, July 5, 2020 . . . Journalist and historian Barbara Greenleaf has made the American family her focus for four decades and the subject of her blog for the past three years. In Parents of Adult Children: You Are Not Alone, she has compiled her most-read posts in which professionals, parents, and panelists weigh in on the thorny issues of today’s adult family. From the difficult daughter-in-law to how to give money, from babysitting grandchildren to communicating with millennials, from launching homebound young adults to leaving a legacy—Parents of Adult Children covers it all.
While parents of young children have tons of information and advice at their disposal, there’s very little out there for parents of adult children. This is surprising because our grown children will be with us three times as long as our young children were. Moreover, our interactions with adult children are much more complex. Even so, many parents don’t get the information they need, certainly not by sharing with friends. There’s still pressure in our society to pretend, perhaps even to ourselves, that everything is perfect with the kids. Barbara started her blog to liberate mothers and fathers from the code of silence.
Barbara is the author of Children Through the Ages: A History of Childhood and HELP: A Handbook for Working Mothers with Lewis Schaffer, M.D., as well as numerous articles for Working Mother magazine. She has also written books for children and teens, having worked in the book and education department at The New York Times upon graduation from Vassar College. Finally, as the mother of two and grandmother of four, she can use the pronoun “we” legitimately!
THIS OLD BODY: And 99 Other Reasons to Laugh at Life
When humor goes, there goes civilization.
Erma Bombeck
As people of a certain age, we’re all familiar with that classic TV show, “This Old House.” But I always thought PBS would get even more viewers with a series called, “This Old Body.” So, although nobody asked me, I took it upon myself to put together a series of personal essays, poems, and jokes that highlight the lowlights of aging. In my not-so-humble opinion, any one of them could be the basis for a TV episode.
Thinking along these lines represents a big change for me. Until recently I was always very serious in my work as a historian, author, and blogger. I was not even remotely what the old Hollywood publicists called a “laff riot.” But as I got older, I got funnier (decrepitude can do that to you, you know). The folks at BoomerCafe.com started publishing my humorous personal essays, then organizations started asking me to read them, and pretty soon I was specializing in the funny side of aging (the last stage before senility sets in, no doubt).
I hope you will laugh along with me at our changing bodies, the ridiculousness of middle-aged love, and the annoyances of modern life (or is it the annoyances of middleaged love and the ridiculousness of modern life?). If nothing else, it’s good for your health. I just read that people who laughed often—thus freeing up all those feel-good endorphins—had 66% lower levels of inflammation than people who didn’t laugh much. For that reason alone, we might as well give it a go . . .
Cheers!
Is Barbara Funny?
After reading her essays or seeing her perform, people sang her praises (and she didn’t have to pay them much, either)
Barbara was fantastic! Brilliant, insightful, playful, self-deprecating, and we could all relate.
Lois P.
I felt she was speaking just to me.
Louise W.
Great presentation – lots of laffs. She rocked the house!
Betsy G.
LOL—I love this spoof on individual Thanksgiving food orders. . . .God bless you, Barbara, and next year do pot luck. Thanks for making me smile.
Emily G.
All I can say is WOW! Barbara was absolutely terrific, funny, articulate, and pitch-perfect. We loved it!
Steve H.
She was amazing. Absolutely fabulous. I had a great time.
Maxine P.
Well, Barbara, your cute article explains why my husband appears to be getting taller lately.
Sophia R.
If there had been a People’s Choice Award, she would have won it.
Gary D.
The needle couldn’t go high enough on the applause meter!
Diane Z.
Thanks for the Christmas chuckles, Barbara. I felt like I was there.
Julie N.
She brought down the house.
Tony M.
Can I have your autograph?
Adele R.