Conflict with Adult Children
Gaye Clark
One in four adults are estranged from their parents, so says one 2022 study. According to another study, 11% of mothers between the ages 65 – 75 with two or more grown children were estranged from at least one of them. Most of the time, the seeds for these conflicts were planted during the young adults' growing up years. Gaye Clark, who is the author of Loving Your Adult Children, The Heartache of Parenting and the Hope of the Gospel, talks to Sharon Betters about the seeds of these conflicts and how parents can navigate these tumultuous relationships, starting with personal repentance. This conversation shines a spotlight on the hearts of the parents, not with condemnation but with instruction on how to respond with kindness rather than anger and gentleness rather than wrath. Gaye challenges listeners to consider carefully and prayerfully how to reflect the fruit of the Spirit in a way that invites an estranged child to “taste and see that the Lord is good”.
Gaye B. Clark is a registered nurse who has worked with young adults for more than 20 years. She has several young women who lovingly call her their mom. Gaye is also a widow and mother of two adult children, Anna Wiggins and Nathan Clark, and grandmother of three, soon to be four, with an additional grandchild due in September.
