The Launching Years: Strategies for Parenting from Senior Year to College Life

by Laura S. Kastner

Launching a child from home is second only to child-birth in its impact on a family. Parents can end up reeling with the empty-nest blues, while teens find their powers of self-reliance stretched to the breaking point. During the time of upheaval that begins senior year of high school with the nerve-wracking college application process and continues into the first year of life away from home, The Launching Years is a trusted resource for keeping every member of the family sane. From weathering the emotional onslaught of impending separation to effectively parenting from afar, from avoiding the slump of “senioritis” to handling the newfound independence and the experimentation with alcohol and sexuality that college often involves, The Launching Years provides both parents and teens with well-written, down-to-earth advice for staying on an even keel throughout this exciting, discomforting, and challenging time.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published August 27, 2002

About the author

Laura Scribner Kastner

Reviews

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

You've read all the parenting books, but now your kids are teenagers and suddenly the rules have all changed! How do you parent a kid who is almost an adult, making life-changing decisions, and quite possibly taller than you are?! This might be the book for you.

In The Launching Years, Kastner focuses on the period of time between the last year of high school and the first year of college. Kids are on an emotional roller coaster as they stretch their wings and test their limits. While Kastner doesn't offer solutions or specific "how tos," she does provide insight into what's going in the teen's mind during this phase of life. She talks about what to expect, and supports her ideas with stories from her practice. I like that Kastner also focuses on how the parent(s) and siblings might be feeling during this stage of life, because the launching years impact the whole family!

This book is a good guide to have on hand if you and your teen are rolling up fast on the launching years!

[Lori Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides helpful perspectives to parents as their kids launch from high school into college, covering everything from the stresses of choosing a college and behaviors to expect in the senior year of high school to issues that may arise in college (or other paths just after high school). Sometimes it is difficult to decide how much to intervene in the lives of kids during these years and where to let them make their own decisions. The author explains different approaches that families can use, considering the specific personality of their kid and the values of that family. I expect to refer back to this book as a resource over the coming years and think it would be helpful to most families with kids in late high school through college.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very helpful and I plan to shelve it as a reference manual for the next few years. The authors, psychologists, included numerous examples from past client's family scenarios. It helped me to think through and adopt healthy strategies for launching our first. Unexpectedly, there was a section on enmeshment, which illuminated my own adolescent experience even more. I appreciated all the emotional awareness this book fostered.

[Vanetta · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was very helpful. I only wished that I had picked this up last year when my child was a junior in high school.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly cheerful. Reading about other parents' troubles which were much worse than my own was therapeutic. Kastner has some good ideas and excellent perspective.

Recommended.

[Shellie G · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a great resourse for first time parents getting ready to launch into our senior's last year of highschool. I have watch many a friend have a terrible time letting their high-schooler go. I want to avoid this. This book gave practical advise.

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good book for anxious parents more worried about "empty nest syndrome "than any actual serious problems with their young adult. Low on content for parents who have teens and young adults who have serious issues that will prevent them from "launching"

[Cathy Guidry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my go to book for all my children in their Junior and Senior years of high school. I'm on the last one child and again this book has come through for me to give me guidance and reassurance for the last child to leave home.

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome for sending kids to college/understanding high school transition