Shari Jonas - Parenting Consultant, Educator and Author
72 episodes listed below
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If you’re a parent of a young adult, are these questions keeping you up at night; How can I become the best parent to my kids? How can I improve my communication with them? How can we connect better? How can I help them to become more confident, resilient and independent? What can I do to motivate them? Why don't they respect me? Why don't they want to hang out with me? If you're searching for these answers, this podcast is for you. I'm Shari Jonas and this is LAUNCH. Where I offer honest, no BS parenting tips that will...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
LAUNCH turns adult-child struggles over independence into practical conversations about attachment, boundaries, listening, and support.
LAUNCH starts where parenting advice often gets awkward: the child is grown, but the relationship still needs work. Shari Jonas uses guest interviews to examine the choices parents make when adult children are struggling with independence, motivation, mental health, or life at…
Grocery shopping sounds trivial until your adult child says they are afraid they can't do it.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A direct solo episode turns parental guilt into a practical look at plans, expectations, and follow-through.
This solo episode speaks to parents whose adult children are still at home and not working, studying, or contributing, and it puts the pressure point squarely on the parent.
A grounded discussion of parents, adult children, and the risk of letting market fear drive retirement decisions.
Retirement anxiety stays tied to family duty here, with parents trying to support adult children who are still working toward independence, responsibility, and a clearer sense of purpose.
A grounded look at social skills as teachable tools for friendship, workplace communication, and greater independence.
This episode centers on adult children who pull back socially, struggle to form friendships, or carry anxiety into everyday interaction. Mara McLaughlin of IRL Social Skills frames social ability as a practical ingredient in confidence and independence, not a vague personality…
A grounded conversation about boundaries, follow-through, and helping an older child move forward.
LAUNCH looks at a familiar parent-child stalemate: a parent wants an older child to move toward adulthood, while home has become a pattern of isolation, low motivation, and limited movement beyond the house.
A firm, practical case for parental steadiness built around boundaries the parent can actually own.
An adult child withdraws, snaps back, stays behind a closed door, and remains financially or practically supported while a parent feels dismissed and used.
A plainspoken look at why control can backfire when young adults are trying to be heard.
This conversation keeps its focus on the strain between protecting young adults and letting them claim some room of their own. The guest's strongest point is simple: control can come wrapped in love, but it still lands as trapping when a young person feels powerless and unheard.
A blunt, useful parent conversation about how fear, school pain, and gaming can feed isolation.
Shari Jonas and Elaine Yuskoski return for a blunt, parent-focused conversation about a young person moving from school confidence into gaming and isolation.
A warm case for rebuilding connection by changing the emotional climate around it.
Laura Hope Whitaker offers a hopeful view of a hard family question: how parents can help adult children reconnect with belonging, connection, and joy.
Parenthood and bodies, told one honest story at a time.
Control can feel like a trap.
Shari Jonas speaks with Nicole Weston, a transformational life coach, social worker, and creator of the Divine Leadership Framework, about the mother wound and how it shapes identity, self-confidence, and parenting.
Their room is their whole world, and they come out of it for bathroom breaks and sustenance.
Shari Jonas speaks with Julia Black about adult children who seem unmotivated and withdrawn.
Shari Jonas talks with Laura Hope Whitaker, CEO of ESP and author of The Joy Exchange.
Expert psychotherapist Catherine Hickam reveals the dirtiest word in parenting adult children (assumptions) and shares her transformational personal story of redemption with her father.
Gaming may not be the real problem.
Sherry Jonas opens with a parent-focused question.
The conversation centers on what parents should do when a young adult is suicidal.
Shari Jonas hosts a podcast for parents of unmotivated adult children (20s-30s) struggling to launch into independence.
Sherry Jonas interviews Susan Raphael, addiction clinician and author, about supporting adult children struggling with addiction and mental health.
Sherry Jonas talks with Janet Krebs about parenting adult children.
Shari Jonas marks Launch episode 50 by interviewing Andy, a 25-year-old who is completing a master's in counseling and psychotherapy and volunteering with Kids Help Phone and NEDIC.
Julie Lithcott-Hames joins the show to talk about overprotective parenting, young adults, and the difficult work of letting go.
Eric Mangold of Argosy Wealth Management tells parents in their 50s and 60s that retirement has shifted from pensions to self-funded nest eggs, with 38% of Americans saving nothing and 50% fearing they will not have enough.
Shari Jonas interviews Maria Rieger, an author, speaker, and certified inner child reparenting coach, about how healing childhood trauma changes parenting.
Crystal Allen returns to Launch after episode 16, where she had described estrangement from two adult children and the trauma she was uncovering in therapy.
A private school consequence gets things started.
Friendship is not extra.
Dr.
Shari Jonas and Elaine Yuskoski focus on how isolation can intensify video gaming addiction, using Bruce Alexander’s Rat Park experiment and a 2019 American Psychological Association study as anchors.
Sherry Jonas speaks with Dr.
Shari Jonas addresses parents struggling with adult children who declare independence while remaining dependent, explaining why parents feel powerless and offering strategies to regain authority through communication and boundary-setting.
Host Shari Jonas interviews counselor Paula Yost about healing from parental wounds and breaking toxic generational patterns.
A parenting expert discusses resilience and emotional regulation for young adults with a clinical social worker.
This episode explores how parents can improve their relationship with their adult children by reflecting on their own parenting legacy.
Host Shari Jonas interviews Elaine Yuskoski about her journey helping families deal with video gaming addiction in young adults.
A parenting expert interviews a pastor and his daughter about strategies for communicating with adult children, shifting from a coaching to an advisory role.
This episode offers actionable steps for parents to build better relationships with their adult children and help them become independent.