This is self-work, and I'm Dr. Margaret Rutherford.

At self-work, we discuss psychological and emotional issues and what you can do about them,

whether that's learning self-acceptance, taking action, or seeking therapy or treatment.

Eight years ago, I extended the walls of my practice to reach those of you who might already be

knowledgeable about middle health treatment, but also to those of you who might say you'd never

darken the door of a therapist. And yet, you are here. I'll answer your questions while I invite

you to take a few minutes for your

own self-work. Let's talk briefly about the stages of parenting. Most models talk about

six stages. Here they are. The image-making stage, that's before you're an actual parent,

the nurturing stage, the authority stage, the

interpretive stage, the interdependent stage, and then what's the last stage? It's the departure

stage. Now that's not death. Welcome to this week's edition of self-work. Parenting is hard. It may be the most ambiguous job you'll ever have. Not only do you have

to wait literally years to see what the finished product truly is. You have to get through

adolescence and social media influence and screen time and drug use and hurt from relationships

and broken bones and just basic screw-ups on your part,

that there's no guaranteed rulebook.

Even your best friend may parent differently than you do.

And one or more of your children can experience depression or bullying or maybe they are the bully.

You can listen to all the podcast in the world and still be unsure about

just how to parent well. You and your parent partner, if you have one, may not agree and

fight a lot about how to raise the kids. After all, you have your own adult problems that are

happening at the same time. But today's episode is on moving on as a parent, leaving the

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