How to Raise An Adult Book Summary

Preview

No one ever said that parenting would be easy. No one ever said that parenting would be worth the effort 100 percent of the time. However, one thing is for certain: in order to raise happy kids, you must strike the balance between challenging and supporting your children’s endeavors. You must set rules, but explain why they exist. You must know when to step in and involve yourself and you should also know when to step back and let events unfold on their own. How to Raise an Adult turns the idea of overparenting on its head and explains why, in our efforts to raise fully functional young adults, we are actually underestimating the resilience of our children. 

Through the employment of an authoritarian parenting style as well as instilling confidence in our kids by allowing them to stand on their own two feet, we will raise a generation of smart, well-adjusted adults who know how to advocate for the things they want out of life.

About the Author

Julie Lythcott-Haims was born in 1967 in Lagos, Nigeria. The former Dean of Freshmen and Undergraduate Advising at Stanford University is an author, speaker, and activist who studies the barriers that commonly prevent humans from being their most authentic selves. In addition to How to Raise an Adult, Lythcott-Haims has written and published two other books, Real American: A Memoir and Your Turn: How to Be an Adult. Currently, Lythcott-Haims is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at San Francisco’s California College of the Arts.