If you’re crying over one of your kids, you’re not alone.
Millions of parents are crying themselves to sleep, heartbroken over their kids’ situations or choices—but because we live in a picture perfect, Instagram filter world, very few parents talk about it.
If you’ve been crying over one of your kids lately, take comfort in this quote from author Anne Lamott:
“Crying is the way home: it bathes us, hydrates, moisturizes us, waters the ground at our feet, where birds have been dropping seeds from the next house and county—so who knows what may grow? Pansies, carrots, roses, mint.”
—Ann Lamott
If you’ve been crying over one of your kids, there is hope.
Kids grow up.
They change.
They make different choices at one part of their lives than they do at others.
And every year, better quality help becomes available.
If you’ve been crying over one of your kids, here are some resources that might help.
1. If your child is age 15 or older—and is anxious, depressed, or self-medicating partially due to lack of clear career direction, read Your 12th Grader’s Got No Career Direction? Do This, Right Now.
2. If you’re parenting a child with disabilities, and you wonder if he or she can even go to college or have job training, read When to Call the College’s Disability Services Office.
3. If you’re missing a child that’s gone away to college (or will go away soon), you will feel less alone if you read Dropping a Kid at College Feels Like a Train Wreck.
4. If you’re feeling anxiety over whether you’ve been a good enough mom, read the powerful, encouraging article where I quote Dr. Henry Cloud: Forget Being Supermom—Just be “Good-Enough Mom.”
5. If you’ve been crying over one of your kids who’s already grown, read When Our Grown Kids Disappoint Us by Jane Adams, Ph.D.
This book is an older one, but counselors and therapists are still recommending it because it’s a goldmine of help for heartbroken parents and grandparents who’d like some coaching and guidance on how to let go of their grown kids’ problems, love them anyway, and make the most of the post-parenting years they have left.
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Might it help you cry a little less—if you had a solid plan for getting your kids through college or job training debt-free?
For clear, step-by-step help with the whole debt-free college process from beginning to end, get your copy of my book:
Important—> It’s a reference book, so nobody reads the whole thing cover to cover. Pick out what you need to read in it using the fast-paced, 10-minute video instructions here.
You can see hundreds of reviews of this book on Amazon by going to:
You can see why financial advising professionals love LAUNCH, here.
You can see the top 9 questions parents are asking me about LAUNCH, here.
Read just one chapter of LAUNCH every 1–3 months while your child’s in middle school and high school, and you’ll know every viable strategy for debt-free college at exactly the right time to implement it.
And if your child’s already well past middle school? That’s OK; you can run to catch up. But the process of getting your kids through college debt-free goes more smoothly the earlier you start it—especially if you’re not planning to save up any money to pay for college.
Let's you and I walk together toward the goal of debt-free college for your kids.
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Who is Jeannie Burlowski?
Jeannie is a full-time academic strategist, podcast host, and sought-after speaker for students ages 12–26, their parents, and the professionals who serve them. Her writing, speaking, and podcasting help parents set their kids up to graduate college debt-free, ready to jump directly into careers they excel at and love. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Huffington Post, USA Today, Parents Magazine, and US News & World Report, and on CBS News.
Jeannie also helps students apply to law, medical, business, and grad school at her website GetIntoMedSchool.com. You can follow her on Bluesky @jburlowski.bsky.social.
No part of this article was written using AI.