
Ellen Galinsky, instead, writes about how parents develop. Drawing on the work in adult development of Erik Erikson and Daniel Levinson, she describes six distinct stages in the life of a parent: the image-making that occurs during pregnancy; the nurturing role that swallows parents up from birth through the first couple of years; the authority parents must develop as small children show independence; the interpretive stage when parents explain the world and their values to school-age children; the interdependent stage when teenagers challenge authority; and the departure years when parents let go and take stock of their accomplishments and failures.
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