Episode 256: College Kids Home for The Summer: The Rules Have Changed

Feeding The Mouth That Bites You: Parenting Teens Into Adulthood

Kenneth Wilgus, Cynthia Yanof

Parenting, Kids & Family, Education, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity, How To

4.8 • 803 Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Your college kid is back home for the summer... and suddenly you're wondering whether they're still your child, a guest, or a roommate who leaves dishes in the sink. This week, Dr. Ken and Cynthia tackle one of the trickiest parenting transitions: when young adults return home after months of living life on their own. From curfews and chores to tracking apps and family vacations, they discuss why many of the rules that worked in high school don't work anymore.

They also dive into the harder stuff—what happens when your child comes home with different beliefs, different priorities, and a strong desire to spend most of their time somewhere other than your living room. If you've ever felt hurt, frustrated, or completely unsure of your role now that your child is growing up, this conversation will help you navigate the tension between holding on and letting go. Turns out, the very independence you've been working toward all these years feels surprisingly personal when it finally arrives.

If you have a minute, please leave us a review. We love hearing listeners encouraging other listeners.

You can order Dr. Ken's book "Feeding The Mouth That Bites You" here

You can order Cynthia's book "Life Is Messy, God Is Good" here

You can order Cynthia's book "How'd I Miss That" here

Got questions or feedback? We want to hear from you! podcast@feedingthemouth.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to Feeding the Mouth That Bight You, a weekly podcast guide on parenting teens and launching them into the world.
0:15.3	I'm Cynthia Yanov, and as always, I'm joined by psychologist and author Dr. Ken Wilgus.
0:21.2	Hey, Dr. Ken, welcome. I always like it when I say welcome to your show. It makes me laugh every time. Well, you are the host and I'm the very consistent guest. I thought you were going to say you're the talent. And I was like, well, true or worse. Let's back up. Let's do it that way. I like that better. I'm the host and he's the talent and here we are.
0:57.0	Well, listen, we are headed into, well, we're into summer, but we're headed into the middle of summer. And so we're going to let everybody know that we are going to take July off. And we're going to take some R&R. And by R&R, I all my kids home so there's that but I hear that you're a manny this summer you know what that is a male nanny right
1:01.4	I do now yes it's just we're old au pairs maybe oh yeah my my wife and I are going to be
1:09.6	over in Europe because our youngest, her baby is there while she's doing research.
1:16.2	And so it'll be exotic babysitting.
1:20.3	Yeah.
1:20.7	Well, hey, if you're going to babysit, why not babysit in Europe?
1:23.2	That's what I've always said.
1:25.4	And I'm learning how to say it in spanish so good even better even
1:30.4	better well yes so we are going to in july we are going to put up some shows that were very popular
1:37.0	shows that um answer questions that we get all the time and so you can check in for those but
1:44.1	we recognize that that's content. Some of you may have
1:46.5	heard before. Some of you haven't. We will be back in August. I nearly said we're going to be
1:50.8	back and better than ever, but let's keep expectations. Be realistic. Be realistic.
1:55.8	Okay. Well, this week we get to talk about the kids are back. They're back, the college kids.
2:02.5	And maybe that's not everybody has a college kid coming back.
2:06.4	Maybe sometimes you've had a young adult that's moved out and they've needed to come back for whatever reason.
2:11.7	But when they leave, you know, they always say they soil the nest, especially the boys, before they leave.
2:18.3	And I felt like that was senior year with my son.
2:22.3	Like when he left, like he didn't soil it.
	...

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