Families logo

A Prayer for Happiness: Five Things to Tell Your Adult Children

Even though your kids have grown and flown the nest, it doesn’t mean they don’t need you and your advice.

By Jilian WoodsPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
Like

As any parent will tell you, watching your kids grow up is, at once, the most wonderful and most difficult thing in the world. On the one hand, you get the sheer joy and amazement of experiencing your children develop their own personalities, seek out their own passions, and discover their own path in life. On the other… well, feeling them gradually move away from you, gradually becoming less dependent, and gradually turning their back on your home is something which most parents find really, really tough—even if they understand completely that in order for them to become well-rounded and happy adults, it’s all just par for the course.

Even though your kids have grown and flown the nest, it doesn’t mean they don’t need you and your advice. You might be hesitant to offer your thoughts and pearls of wisdom to your adult children—after all, it’s easy to imagine that the last thing they want is another lecture from mum and dad on what to do and how to do it. However, we all need some guidance from time to time, no matter how old or independent we are. There are, as such, some things which are absolutely worth reiterating to your adult children… because no matter how strong and resilient they may seem on the outside, this generation of young adults and graduates have more on their plate that the previous generation did.

With that in mind, we’ve come up with seven things you should never hold back from telling your adult children, each of which is every bit as valuable as the last. Go on, pick up that phone, and let them know you care.

Have a Savings Plan

Millennials are known for being stretched when it comes to money, as a result of rising costs, housing expenses, student debt, and low-paying entry-level jobs. However, saving little and often can make a massive difference at the end of the year, and even forgoing a morning coffee in a cafe and making one for yourself at home allows you to save a surprising amount of money over time.

There are some really, really great savings apps out there right now, which are designed to encourage young adults to be a little more cautious with their money, and remind them to put aside small amounts which grow over time. When they’re jetting off on a holiday bought with their gradual savings and frugal approach, they’ll be sure to thank you for this piece of advice!

Make Time For Yourself

Life is getting faster, and as the world speeds up, we’re all guilty of leaving ourselves and our happiness behind. Your adult children deserve to be happy, but in order to experience happiness and discover what makes us feel good and safe, we need to make time in which this can happen. This is especially difficult for college students, who are often overloaded with coursework and essays (some of which don’t even make a difference to their final grade!), and who simply end up in a spiral of stress and anxiety over deadlines. Thankfully, a top quality online essay writing service is at hand to help alleviate the stress, and take some of the weight off their shoulders. By getting help from expert writers, that workload can be reduced significantly… meaning your kids will have more free time to actually enjoy life—and you can’t put a price on that.

Set Your Goals Wisely

When you’re young, it’s easy to feel like you have all the time in the world to achieve everything you want to. However, as all parents know, this simply isn’t the case… and plenty of people wake up one day, feeling that they’ve missed the boat heading towards their dreams.

Encourage your adult children to identify their goals, and then set milestones or smaller goals which will help them reach their destination. Whether they want to be a physicist or a published poet or wish to buy a house or travel the world, every goal sits at the end of a path we have to walk with our own two feet. By setting those goals clearly, that path becomes a whole lot easier to walk.

Be Kind to Your Body

I’m sure there are plenty of parents out there who wish they had taken this advice more seriously themselves! Really, though—we only get one body in this life, and there’s only so much abuse and misuse it can take. Eating well, getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, and avoiding harmful substances really does make an enormous difference to your health and happiness.

Be Kind… Period.

The world can be a nasty and brutal place at times, with people all too willing to trample over one another to get to the top of the pile. Your adult kids will experience this at some point, and they’ll be tempted to harden themselves to others and enter this destructive dog-eat-dog dynamic in a race to the top. What they—and everyone—need to realize is that kindness is far, far more important than personal ambition. There’s an old Buddhist saying that fits well in this context: “be kind to those you meet on your way up the mountain, as you will meet them again on your way back down”—we never know when we need to rely on our friends or those in our networks, so be the best person you can at every turn. It’ll make a significant difference in the long run.

parents
Like

About the Creator

Jilian Woods

Slowly but surely influencing on your consciousness by using magic words in my writings

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.