Dial Up the Dream

This polished, inviting parenting guide illuminates the relationship between mothers and teen daughters."-Publishers WeeklyYour daughter is growing up, but you don't have to grow apart.Picking up where her national bestseller, Dial Down the Drama, left off, Colleen O'Grady's Dial Up the Dream supports you in navigating your daughter's last days at home and her transition to adulthood. This emerging-adult stage can be even more stressful on both mother and daughter than the teen years, because the stakes are higher and the changes to the relationship more profound.This essential guidebook will validate what you are feeling and experiencing with your daughter right now as well as give you a road map for what's coming. Dial Up the Dream will prepare moms for the three phases they will go through during the late teens and early twenties. The first goal is to preserve the relationship during senior year and not get preoccupied with the future, i.e. falling into the "college trap". The second phase is when your daughter leaves home, whether it's to live with roommates, travel, enter the workforce, try entrepreneurship, or go to college. As she gains her independence, you're losing a job that's defined you for nearly two decades. While she gets ceremonies and congratulations, there's no accompanying ritual or even acknowledgment for the changes in your life. The third phase is letting go, which can trigger a "mom crisis." O'Grady helps you get unstuck, make sense of your own story, reconnect with yourself and dial up your dream. The paradox is that when you dial up your own dream...you stay close to your daughter.In this book, you'll learn:· Exactly what's going on with your daughter emotionally and physiologically. And how to use this science-based knowledge to set realistic expectations· How to think about and navigate the many complex feelings in this journey for both you and your daughter· The most common emotional traps we moms get caught in during these years and how to avoid them altogether· Why it's imperative to change your parenting role from monitor to trusted consultant-and how to do that· How to use this new phase in your daughter's life to dial up your own dreams-and why doing so is imperative to your daughter's development and to a having a vibrant, meaningful, lifelong mother-daughter relationship.