Your Turn

Julie Lythcott-Haims, a former dean of freshmen and advising at Stanford University, returns to the territory of her earlier book, How to Raise an Adult. This time she speaks to grown children of parents who hover, and to anyone who finds it hard to feel like a capable adult in today's uncertain times.

For much of the last century, psychologists measured adulthood by five benchmarks: completing schooling, starting work, moving out of the family home, marrying, and becoming a parent. Each generation has been judged against that same list, yet Lythcott-Haims argues that the fixed order it implies no longer matches how people actually live.

Rather than a single checklist to complete, she describes adulthood as an ongoing skill that can be developed over the years. The book offers practical strategies for living a more genuine adult life, with a focus on growing more at ease with uncertainty and building the practical know-how to keep moving forward.