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Holding On While Letting Go

Parenting Your Child Through the Four Freedoms of Adolescence

Published by Health Communications Inc EB
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

Havard-trained psychologist and Psychology Today parenting expert Carl Pickhardt gives parents an eye-opening lifeline to what to expect on rocky road of middle school, revealing the Four Freedoms that every child must master to become a healthy adult--and how parents can adapt, encourage, and grow themselves

This book explains to parents how four unfolding drives for freedom sequentially and cumulatively motivate adolescent growth, as this ten to twelve year coming of age passage forever changes the child, the parent in response, and the relationship between them. The four unfolding freedoms are these. First is freedom from rejection of childhood, around the late elementary school years, when the girl or boy wants to stop acting and being treated as just a child anymore. Second is freedom of association with peers, around the middle school years, when the girl or boy wants to form a second family of friends. Third is freedom for older experimentation, around the high school years, when the girl or boy wants to try more grown up activities. And fourth is freedom to claim emancipation, around the college age years, when the girl or boy decides to become their own ruling authority. With each successive push for freedom, parent and adolescent both have to do less holding on to each other while doing more letting go.

About The Author

Carl Pickhardt, Ph.D., is a noted psychologist, speaker, and parenting expert, now retired from private counseling practice. He received his B.A. and M.Ed. from Harvard, and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of the American and Texas Psychological Associations. He writes a popular parenting advice column for Psychology Today and has writtten some of the most practical and helpful books about important parenting issues, including: The Connected Father; Stop the Screaming, The Future of Your Only Child and Why Good Kids Act Cruel. A prolific author, he continues to write three distinct kinds of books: illustrated psychology, of coming of age fiction, and of nonfiction parenting advice – Holding on While Letting Go the seventeenth of these parenting books. For a complete list of his books, see his website: www.carlpickhardt.com

Product Details

  • Publisher: Health Communications Inc EB (October 4, 2022)
  • Length: 284 pages
  • ISBN13: 9780757324246

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Raves and Reviews

"As 'real world practical' as it is informative, insightful, and 'parent friendly' in organization and presentation, "Holding On While Letting Go: Parenting Your Child Through the Four Freedoms of Adolescence" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Parenting Instructional Reference collections."



The Parenting Shelf, Wisconsin Bookwatch, Midwest Book Review



"Holding On While Letting Go is precisely the guidebook parents need to instill confidence, mental health, and independence in our children, while building a connected and caring relationship with them at all ages. Carl's Four Freedoms show how to raise our kids into healthy, well-adjusted adults. The book is a resource to help parents adapt, encourage, and grow themselves--so ultimately we are all at our best."

Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino, mom of four sons and author of The Change Guidebook

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