“I had no idea parenting adult children could be so hard.”

It’s a sentiment Catherine Hickem, LCSW, hears often from parents who are trying to find their footing in this unfamiliar season of family life. The strategies that once guided parents through toddlerhood and the teenage years are irrelevant when children reach adulthood. Across the country, many parents find themselves unsure how to stay connected, how to support without overstepping, and how to maintain closeness as roles and expectations shift.

For many parents, the transition from raising children to relating to them as adults is far more difficult than they expected. Research reflects this sobering reality. Nearly 27% of adult children are estranged from a parent, and more than half do not share the deeper details of their struggles with their parents. The landscape of parenting has changed, yet few parents have been shown how to navigate it.

In It’s Never Too Late to Be a Great Parent, Catherine offers a clear and compassionate path forward. Drawing on decades of clinical experience guiding parents and her work through Parenting Adult Children Today, she helps parents understand the critical shifts required to build healthy, lasting relationships with their adult children.

Catherine does more than offer guidance, she gently relieves parents of a burden many carry quietly: the belief that they are responsible for their adult child’s successes or failures. Instead, she invites parents to rediscover their role as a steady, grounded presence, one rooted in emotional maturity, respect, and healthy boundaries.

In these pages, parents will find hope, clarity, and a renewed vision for what parenting can look like in adulthood. With warmth and honesty, Catherine offers encouragement without judgment, support without enabling, and a voice that deeply understands the heart of a parent.

So pull up a chair, take a quiet moment, and settle in. You may discover that it is not too late—nor too complicated—to find your way back to your adult child’s heart