Lisa Heffernan and Mary Dell Harrington, GROWN & FLOWN

Lisa Heffernan and Mary Dell Harrington are the coauthors of Grown & Flown: How to Support Your Teen, Stay Close as a Family, and Raise Independent Adults. They are also the co-creators of Grown & Flown, the number one community site for parents with teens and college students, reaching millions of parents every month. They started their community when they saw how few resources there were for parents of no-longer-little-kids. Their book continues this tradition by addressing some of the most challenging, exciting, heartbreaking, and consequential years of parenting with essays and input from experts and parents alike. Our talk was super helpful to me as it came right before my oldest son went off to boarding school. Best tips: make the bed first, write a goodbye letter, plan some bonding activities in the aftermath of drop-off.