The one mistake every parent makes with adult children. #parenting #shorts

16 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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0:57

In this short, the speaker explains a common parenting mistake when dealing with adult children: confusing support with enabling. Using a personal story about helping his daughter with homework, he illustrates how well‑intentioned assistance can become enabling when the parent takes ownership of the task. He defines the key difference—support means the adult child retains ownership, while enabling means the parent assumes it. The speaker emphasizes that good intentions alone don’t guarantee good outcomes and that parents must sometimes step back to truly support. He acknowledges his own learning journey, offers a simple test to identify whether they are supporting or enabling, and invites viewers to follow for more parenting insights.

Chapters

Are you enabling or supporting your adult child? If you're not sure, here's how to tell the difference. I used to help my daughter with her homework. I thought that was supporting her, but in fact, as I look back on it, I was enabling her. That's why when parents tell me, I'm just trying to help, I know that comes from a good place. I know you have the best of intentions. I know that comes from love, but good intentions don't automatically create good results. Sometimes helping means stepping in, but also sometimes helping means stepping back. Here's how to tell the difference. When you support, they still own it. When you are enabling them, then you own it. And living by that is one of the hardest parts of parenting an adult child. I don't teach this from a perfect parent pedestal. Now that you know what supporting and enabling looks like, you can figure out what you're doing. And I'm not some perfect parent. I had to learn this too. So if this tip was helpful, please follow me for more things I wish I would have known earlier parenting an adult child.