Nobody's Baby Now FROM THE PUBLISHER
Do your parents still drive you crazy, even though you tell yourself not to let what they say get to you? Regardless of how much you love your mother and father, no one can bother you quite like they do. Whether you live across town from them or across the country, your filial bond may sometimes feel more like bondage as conversations or visits predictably degenerate into rounds of criticism, innuendo, and emotional manipulation, causing hurt feelings -- yours and/or theirs. Nobody's Baby Now is a practical guide to breaking this cycle and fostering more positive adult interactions with your parents. Susan Newman, a social psychologist specializing in family dynamics, offers realistic strategies for improving the adult child-parent relationship, based on two years of interviews with adults across the country -- daughters and sons between the ages of twenty-seven and fifty-five -- who share their experiences about everything from guilt trips and holiday conflicts, to money issues and long-standing grudges. Their stories are universally familiar and will provide invaluable insights into your own family dynamics. Even if you are convinced that your parents will never change, you may be astonished to see that by modifying your own behavior pattern or attitude toward them you can have a noticeable impact on how they treat you. Covering issues as varied as boundaries and babies, in-laws and careers, Nobody's Baby Now gives you the tools to keep disagreements to a minimum, turn intolerable situations around, and guide the transformation of your relationship with your parents into a mature, supportive, and loving connection.
SYNOPSIS
Whether you're a CEO or schoolteacher, single or married with children, you are still your parents' child. Regardless of your age, you can be transported back into adolescent angst by what you perceive to be a parent's demands, criticism, or other manipulations.
Are you tired of conversations or visits ending in arguments or hurt feelings-yours or theirs? Do you feel guilty about things you did and didn't do or say? Do you say "I'll never be like my parents," only to realize that you act more like them than you'd ever imagined? Nobody's Baby Now is a practical guide to resolving those and other dilemmas by reinventing your relationship with your parents. Susan Newman, a social psychologist who specializes in family dynamics, offers realistic strategies for improving the adult child-parent relationship, based on two years of interviews with 150 adults between the ages of twenty-eight and fifty-five, who share their experiences-from pet peeves and holiday conflicts to money issues and long-standing grudges. Their stories are universally familiar and provide insights into your own family dynamics, while their strategies for changing patterns of behavior on both sides are inspiring.
Covering issues as varied as boundaries and babies, in-laws and careers, Nobody's Baby Now gives you the tools to keep disagreements to a minimum, turn intolerable situations around, and guide the transformation of your adult child-parent relationship into a mature, supportive, and loving connection.
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