Hi, I'm Jim Daly. In summertime, giving to focus on the family slows down, but families in crisis

still need your support. As we face a bit of a shortfall right now, we need your help to save marriages

through hope, offer dignity, comfort, and hope to children in foster care through wait no more,

and provide biblical resources for families. Your gift by August 31st will make a

real difference and offer lasting hope. Visit focus on the family.com slash support families.

Thank you for downloading the Focus on the Family Parenting Podcast. You can find more helpful

advice at Focusonthefamily.com slash parenting podcast.

If you're new to parenting, you might have a hard time doing this, but just daydream a bit.

And kind of picture your little tyke as a 25-year-old.

That's a little harder for some of us to do than others. You really can't go down

that road too far, and it's going to happen all too quickly. Your son is going to be independent.

He's maybe going to have his own family, possibly a great career. How do you get in there, though?

Those steps are so difficult to discern. I'm John Fuller, along with Danny Werta,

and Dr. Meg Meeker has some great advice, especially if you're one of those moms who feels like

you've got to do everything from your son. It's a love language. You serve your son, but he's 15.

So what does that look like? Well, she's going to get into that in a conversation she had with Focus President, Jim Daly and me.

One of the best things a mom has to learn, and you've really accented this, but it's how to let go.

You use the metaphor of the ax.

Let them say, don't try to fix me, you know, realize your role.

And I think for the mom who's in the throes of it right now, maybe with that 13, 14, 16-year-old,

A, why is the process so difficult?

And then B, how can she rationally understand it's really important that she do this and begin to actually do it.

...