Getting To 30 (the paperback edition of When Will My Grown-Up Kid Grow Up?) is a research-based parenting guide for parents of 18-to-29 year olds. It’s a resource for parents who thought they no longer needed one, and it’s filled with savvy advice, practical insights, and revealing stories of grown-up kids and their parents. Co-written by Elizabeth Fishel and Clark University developmental psychologist Jeffrey Arnett, it has been called a “Dr. Spock for parents with children in all stages of emerging adulthood.”

Getting To 30 reassures parents who worry: Will our child ever leave home, find love, start a career, settle down, and become a grown-up? It’s the book that shows parents how the time spent in emerging adulthood—which may sometimes look like flailing—actually helps kids become happier, healthier grown-ups.

Inspired by Elizabeth’s two 20-something sons and Jeff’s two decades of studying (and naming) emerging adulthood, Getting To 30 draws on the authors’ 90 in-depth personal interviews, an online survey, and two national polls.

Getting To 30 guides parents in the dance of stepping back, but staying connected. It also helps them explore this uncharted territory in their own lives as they move from full-time parenting to a new life-stage with its own questions, possibilities, and dreams.

“Parenting kids in their twenties takes tact, patience and wisdom. If you find you are running out of all three you must read when Getting To 30. This is the book parents have been waiting for. It will restore your confidence and lift your spirits.”
—Michael Thompson, Ph.D., coauthor of Raising Cain

“Wise, very concrete help for parents trying to find the elusive middle ground between biting their tongues and remaining actively involved with the life dilemmas of their emerging adult children.”
—Philip and Carolyn Cowan, Professors Emeriti, University of California, Berkeley