Learning to adjust parenting strategies and expectations according to our children's stages of growth can be one of the most challenging aspects of parenting.  In this episode, Andie introduces the five stages of growth from infancy to adulthood. These five stages are:

1. Enmeshment - The child's identity, beliefs,  and emotional experiences are interconnected and enmeshed with their family of origin.  
2. Socialization - As the child begins to look outside the family, social interactions and friends become important.
3. Separation - The young teen begins the process of pulling away from the family to try to seek out their own worldview, convictions, and identity. 
4. Individuation - In an attempt to define themselves as an individual, the young adult differentiates from their family and forms their own concepts of self, friends, and God. 
5. Cooperation - After developing a healthy sense of self, God, and deep social connections outside the family, the young adult enters a peaceful and cooperative relational connection with their family of origin.

This episode is part one in a series wrestling with this concept and learning how our reactions to our children growing through these phases can speed up or slow down their path to adulthood!