Introduction
Over the past couple of weeks, I have had the privilege of reading; Raising Adults: A
Humane Guide for Parenting in the New World. This book was a fantastic read, and one that I
will keep handy for a long time as life goes on. The book helps parents, teachers, pastors, youth
pastors, and so many different types of people. However, before stating a personal response to
the book, a summary must be given.
Summary
Raising Adults: A Humane Guide for Parenting in the New World is a book that talks
about the challenges and styles of raising children. To go along with that, the book talks about
what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to raising children.
The name of the book comes from a play-on-words, which summarizes the book in itself.
Humans spend so much time of their life raising children, and that is what the parent ends up
with, a child. So, the name of the book is showing the first problem, that the goal is not to raise
adult children but rather to raise adults. The main problem that the book is helping to solve is the
problem that when kids are getting to the real world, they aren’t ready for that. Jim Hancock
gives great insight to that problem.
Hancock starts by giving a history of the children of past generations in the first section
of his book. He shows, how they were raised, what worked and what didn’t. After highlighting
the mistakes of the past, Hancock moves forward to talk about doing nothing in part two of his
book.
It sounds silly, but what he means was that there are six things that parents do that does
not help when raising kids. Those six things were, hijacking, fixing, bossing, demanding,
shaming, and taming. Hancock says to do these six things instead; explore, collaborate, partner
with, affirm, respect, and encourage that child. One main point that can be taken away from this
section of the book is “Even if you have five kids, you still have to raise them one at a time.”1
After going over different ways to raise a child, Hancock starts his third and final section
which talks about how the culture of new generations is different than the generations that are
raising them. He writes about how the new generation takes parts of the old and makes them
more modern. For some parents, the differences might be scary, but that doesn’t mean that they
are bad. He writes that “The members of one generation seldom fully appreciate the generation
that immediately follows.”2 This section of the book highlights how to better care for a child that
is different than the person raising them.
As the book comes to a conclusion, Hancock reminds his readers that we are all in the
same boat. Trying to figure out parts of life as we go.
Personal response
This book was a huge encouragement for me. I wrote in a discussion a few weeks back
that reading this book got me excited for being a parent. I still stand by that. I am no where near
being a parent yet, but knowing that I will play such an important role in the raising of a few
adults is so exciting.
Another way that this book helped me was that it helped me to see why children and
youth are different than their parents and even I am. I currently am in a ministry role as a youth
intern. Each week I meet with about thirty kids, each one of them different and each one of them
trying to grow in their own way. This book showed me that one of the best ways to help them
grow is just by listening to what they have to say. I will remember that for as long as I work with
children!
1 Jim Hancock, Raising Adults: A Humane Guide for Parenting in the New World (The Tiny Company Called Me,
2018), 37.
2 Ibid
The end of the book was helpful to me too because it showed that there are so many
others that are in the same boat as me. People trying to lead kids and trying to help them grow
into adults. It takes time, but it is all so that we raise adults who honor the Lord and serve Him
well.
Conclusion
Raising Adults: A Humane Guide for Parenting in the New was an amazing read which
can so greatly benefit those who read it. The ideas, statements, and facts that are presented about
raising children can help immensely in any job or occupation that deals with kids!
Bibliography
