Getting to 30: A Parent’s Guide to the 20-Something Years

“This is the book parents have been waiting for”—Michael Thompson, coauthor of Raising Cain. The book that is “helpful, hopeful, and engaging”—Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Ph.D., Columbia University. It is the book that addresses the new reality for parents of kids in their 20s and the issues that everyone in the media is talking about: When will this new generation of 20-somethings leave home, find love, start a career, settle down—grow up? And it's the book that will soothe your nerves. It’s loaded with information about what to expect and guidance on what to do when problems arise (as they probably will). In other words, this is the book parents need—Getting to 30, by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, the world's leading authority on the post-adolescent phase he named emerging adulthood, and Elizabeth Fishel, author of Sisters and other books.

As Getting to 30 shows, the road to adulthood is longer than we think—and, for parents, bumpier. It explains what’s really happening to your 18- to 29-year-old, including the story behind your child’s moods. The phenomenon of the boomerang child—and why it’s actually a good thing, for parents and kids. The new landscape of 20-something romance. And it gives all the tools parents need to deal with the challenges, from six ways to listen more than you talk, to knowing when to open (and close) the Bank of Mom and Dad while saving for retirement, to figuring out the protocol for social media.

Published in hardcover as When Will My Grown-Up Kid Grow Up?, Getting to 30 includes the latest research on the optimistic and supportive attitude most parents have regarding their 20-something children.