How do today’s parents cope when the dreams we had for our children clash with reality? What can we do for our twenty- and even thirty-somethings who can t seem to grow up? How can we help our depressed, dependent, or addicted adult children, the ones who can’t get their lives started, who are just marking time or even doing it? What’s the right strategy when our smart, capable adultolescents won’t leave home or come boomeranging back? Who can we turn to when the kids aren’t all right and we, their parents, are frightened, frustrated, resentful, embarrassed, and especially, disappointed?

Dr. Adams offers a positive, life-affirming message to parents who are still trying to fix their adult children – Stop! She shows us how to separate from their problems without separating from them, and how to be a positive force in their lives while getting on with our own.

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Take a moment to consider how many outcomes in your life may have been affected by poor communication skills. Could you have gotten a job you really wanted? Saved a relationship? What about that political conversation that got out of hand at a dinner party? How is it that we so often fail to say the right thing at the right time?

In her career as an NPR host, journalist Celeste Headlee has interviewed hundreds of people from all walks of life, and if there’s one thing she’s learned, it’s that it’s hard to overestimate the power of conversation and its ability to both bridge gaps and deepen wounds. In We Need to Talk, she shares what she’s learned on the job about how to have effective, meaningful, and respectful conversations in every area of our lives.

Now more than ever, Headlee argues, we must begin to talk to and, more importantly, listen to one another – including those with whom we disagree. We Need to Talk gives readers ten simple tools to help facilitate better conversations, ranging from the errors we routinely make (put down the smart phone when you’re face to face with someone) to the less obvious blind spots that can sabotage any conversation, including knowing when not to talk, being aware of our own bias, and avoiding putting yourself in the centre of the discussion.

Whether you’re gearing up for a big conversation with your boss, looking to deepen or improve your connection with a relative, or trying to express your child’s needs to a teacher, We Need to Talk will arm you with the skills you need to create a productive dialogue.

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More than half a million parents confront the empty nest for the first time each year. It is one of the most challenging phases of parenting, often creating feelings of loss, lack of purpose and crisis of identity which can lead to depression. Yet it receives little recognition. And contrary to popular opinion it doesn’t only affect women who’ve put their careers on hold: working mothers and fathers suffer too. Equally, it can be a period of liberation and discovery of new challenges, when marriages long overstressed by childcare can be rejuvenated.
The book will include plenty of people’s experiences; expert comment and advice; and there will be a practical strand full of ideas, inspiration and tips. There will be a strong focus on the positive as well as how to handle the changing relationship with your children to ensure a fulfilling and good relationship going forward, an area of parenting often ignored.

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Being a parent is one of the toughest jobs anyone can do, and the role doesn’t end when children grow up. In fact, parenting can become even harder then, as adult children struggle to become more independent, while parents struggle to relate to their children in more mutual ways. The pitfalls for both generations can be daunting, yet few books or other resources exist to guide families through these difficult times.

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was written to help you to be a happy and harmonious parent to your adult children during what some experts now call the second-stage parenting phase. (And because we’re living longer, this phase is far longer than when we were parents to little kids!) Using real-life scenarios – coupled with advice and opinions from a variety of experts – each chapter focuses on one of today’s complicated intergenerational issues such as “adult sibling rivalry,’’ “money and inheritance’’ (i.e., when giving money to an adult child is more harmful than helpful). One chapter explains the underlying causes for the “mother-in-law/daughter-in-law conflicts’’ with tips for resolution. Other chapters offer suggestions for “dealing with grandkids in mixed-marriages,’’ “adult kids who return to the nest,’’ “coping with your child’s divorce,’’ and “how to appreciate your gay or lesbian child.’’ More than anything else, this humorous and heartfelt book helps readers learn how to accept their adult children – not as they wish they would be – but as they are.

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Much has changed in the 10 years since this book was first published including young adults themselves, and even their parents. Economic upheavals, challenges to traditional values and beliefs, and the phenomenon of over-involved “helicopter parenting,” all make relating to grown children more difficult than ever.

Yet at the same time, being a parent of an adult child can bring great rewards. This revised and updated version of Dr. Gary Chapman’s and Dr. Ross Campbell’s message will help today’s parents explore how to really love their adult child in today’s changing world. The book includes brief sidebars from parents of adult children and adult children themselves with their own stories. An online study guide is also available.

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Transform your communication skills. Have you ever felt like you’re talking, but nobody is listening? Renowned five-time TED Talks speaker and author Julian Treasure reveals how to speak so that people listen–and how to listen so that people feel heard. As this leading sound expert demonstrates via interviews with world-class speakers, professional performers and CEOs atop their field, the secret lies in developing simple habits that can transform your communication skills, the quality of your relationships and your impact in the world.

Effective speaking, listening, and understanding skills. How to be Heard includes never-before-seen exercises to develop your communication skills that are as effective at home as in the boardroom or conference call. Julian Treasure offers an inspiring vision for a world of effective speaking, listening and understanding.

Secrets of communication skills and tips discussed in How to be Heard include:

• How to make sound work for you
• Why listening matters
• The four cornerstones of powerful speaking and listening
• How to avoid the seven deadly sins of speaking and listening
• How to listen and why we don’t
• The power of your vocal toolbox and tricks of great speakers
• Exercises and methods to achieve clarity, precision and impact
• How to deliver a great talk.

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Leadership is the art of designing transformative conversations.

Real change is needed, now, more than ever. This change can’t happen through force, edict or persuasion. The future will be built through conversation – and Good Talk will show you how.

Good Talk is a step-by-step framework to effect change in your personal and professional conversations. With dozens of tools and interactive components, Good Talk is a handbook to navigate the conversations that matter.

What’s Inside:

• How to see the structure of conversations. Life is built one messy, slippery conversation at a time. While conversations feel hard to hold onto, ebbing and flowing, back and forth and into eventual silence, they each have a structure. The first step to changing your conversations is seeing what’s going on between the silence.
• What is your Conversation Operating System? Who gets invited to the conversation? Who speaks first? Where does the conversation take place? What happens if someone messes up? In every conversation, there are elements that guide the exchange. The nine elements of the Conversation OS Canvas can help you to shift the direction of your conversations.
• What is your conversational range? Conversations are more than dialogue. From the conversations in your head to the complex conversation that is your organization, you need to design conversations that matter across a huge range of sizes. Learn to master conversations from the boardroom and beyond.
• How to design conversations that matter. The world needs fresh, creative conversations that are alive, and that work for all the people involved. How can you design conversations that matter? Leadership means designing the conditions for these conversations to happen. Learn the patterns and principles to make change possible.

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A Guide to Talking with Your Adult Children about the Rest of Your Life

It was a rite of passage for you to have the Talk with your kids about the birds and the bees. As you get older, you need to have the Other Talk ― talking with your adult children about the later years of life.  This book helps you take control of your life so when the time comes, your kids can make decisions based on what you want. It gives you the tools to develop a strong partnership with your kids, rather than leaving them to make plans after a crisis has hit. It provides the practical advice and inspiration you need to have open, honest discussions about subjects that can be difficult to talk about.

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