Parents Who Are Close To Their Adult Kids Share How They Got There

<div><img src="https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/68dd32b014000094935c6a47.jpg?ops=scalefit_630_noupscale" alt="" data-caption="" data-credit-link-back="" data-credit="Klaus Vedfelt via Getty Images" /></div><div class="content-list-component text"><p>No parent wants to see their child grow up and drift further and further away from them until they cut connection altogether.</p><p><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/tech-support/202305/no-adult-childparent-estrangement-isnt-a-fad#:~:text=A%20recent%20study%20by%20Rin,4%E2%80%94reported%20estrangement%20from%20fathers." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Yet a 2023 study</a> found 6% of adult children are estranged from their mothers. This figure creeps up to 26% (one in four) reporting estrangement from their fathers. </p><p>Recently, a parent asked others who’ve managed to stay close with their adult children the simple question of: “How did you get there?”</p><p>“How did you treat your children as babies and growing up? How did you maintain that closeness through the teen years and into adulthood?” <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Parenting/comments/1nuuv4p/parents_of_adult_children_who_stayed_very_close/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">they wrote on Reddit.</a></p><p>A couple of key themes emerged in the responses: namely the importance of letting your kids carve their own path in life, and cultivating closeness by spending time together as a family (for example, sitting around the TV or dinner table together and spending time talking).</p><p>Here’s what other parents had to say...</p><h2><strong>‘We didn’t push our expectations on our children’</strong></h2><p>“I think the number one parenting choice we made was t