Book suggestions to help me come to terms with teenagers growing up?

[Kinraddie]

My children are 16 and 17, discovering love and relationships, and looking ahead to university, leaving home etc. I want to support them, be happy for them and help them succeed, but I really struggle with the thought of them not being around as much, and basically becoming independent adults. Any good book suggestions that can sort me out?

Sorry. Don't know any. I would focus on building your life so they aren't the centre. What hobbies do you have that you can develop? Look to widen your social circle etc.

Could you look up "Empty Nesters" on amazon and see which ones have good reviews.

Actually it's an interesting idea.
Older teenagers and young adults do sometimes still need their parents, financial advice, relationship difficulties for example.
It's a fine line between offering advice when asked and taking a step back to let them make their own decisions. It's still parenting and yet among the millions of parenting books and websites this is rarely covered.

There's a book called Letting Go as Children Grow by Deborah Jackson. It's mostly about younger children, helping them to be independent, etc, but the last 30-40 pages on teenagers might be helpful/interesting for you.

I'm slightly ahead of you and it's a strange time - very bitter sweet. It's lovely watching them grow up and you're thrilled for them but there's a kind of grief there too. I don't think it's just about finding new hobbies.

I'm thinking more in terms of fiction than of advice books. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything that specifically deals with it (which is interesting in itself) but Anne Tyler, Alice Munroe and Carol Shields all write (wrote) very well about family relationships in middle age. lf I remember anything further I'll come back.