You know I remember he was seven and he was going over to a friend's house and I knew they were going to make sausages on the grill and I knew my kid wasn't going to eat that and so I made a little baggie. I'm so embarrassed to say this. I made a little baggie of pasta with butter and parmesan cheese because I didn't want my son to be hungry, right?

And now he's a 20 year old who's really outside of his comfort zone and things are a little scary out there.

Welcome to How To! I'm Charles Stewart.

Each week on this show, we help folks work through life's challenges,

like preparing for a big audition or deciding whether to have a baby.

And on today's episode, we have a problem that's very close to my own heart.

How much should you force your kids to finally grow up?

Our listener is a mom from Maryland who wants to know the best way to push her son into adulthood.

My name is Lisa.

I'm Ellen's mom. I'm a retired engineer and now I study ceramics at the local community

college.

Owen 17.5 and he's just about to graduate from high school to start the rest of his life

But he doesn't really seem to know what that should look like

And we just don't know what to do next.

What do you mean?

Well, he's a good student, he's good at everything,

but he's really not that excited about any of it and he hasn't really made any

plans for himself and I'd like to know as a parent how I can help him and so you guys have probably been talking about college for at least a year now.

What does he say when you say like, hey college is coming up?

Not much. is he planning on applying for college I'm not sure and you know I mean I don't really mind if he stays home and

hangs out with us or goes off to school and then comes back home for graduate school or

something like that.

...