192: Jim Burns: When Adult Children Stray
You raised them with loving intentions—so why the distance? Jim Burns addresses parents’ regret and fear, sharing what to do when pushing backfires—and how to keep the door open with your adult child.
Welcome to our podcast
FamilyLife Blended® provides timeless wisdom and practical help and hope for blended families and those who love them. Join Ron L. Deal, LMFT, LPC as he and his guests discuss a wide variety of marriage, family, and relationship topics related to blended families.
Meet Ron Deal
Ron Deal is Director of FamilyLife Blended® for FamilyLife® and President of Smart Stepfamilies™. He is a family ministry consultant and conducts marriage and family seminars around the country; he specializes in marriage education and stepfamily enrichment. He is one of the most widely read authors on stepfamily living in the country.
Latest Episodes
You raised them with loving intentions—so why the distance? Jim Burns addresses parents’ regret and fear, sharing what to do when pushing backfires—and how to keep the door open with your adult child.
Father’s Day hits differently when chairs are empty and stepkids keep their distance. Ron Deal talks with Brian and Debbie Doyle about grief, blended families, and moving with patience, not pressure.
Mother’s Day can sting when life goes sideways—wayward kids, courtrooms, even prison. Ron Deal talks with Carol Kent about loving a son behind bars and finding faith while living the impossible.
Loss shattered you; remarriage after widowhood humbles you amid trauma, blending families, and recurring developmental grief. If comparison, unmet expectations, or past pain threaten your marriage and home, listen in. Daniel and Brittany Brooker (Refuge Widowers) share Scripture-soaked wisdom, practical strategies, and hope to redeem brokenness for God’s glory.
Grew up in a blended family? New houses, new rules, new “normal” every few years. Ron Deal talks with Barna's Micah Scharchburg about growing up in chaos—and how to parent without passing the past onto your kids.
Meet Matt and Kari Perkins, widowed parents who blended a family of seven after deep loss. They know you don’t “get over” loss—you grow with it. Find honest hope for grieving parents and blended families as you form a future without erasing the past.
Blended family life is messy—old fears, exes, money stress, kid loyalties. Ron Deal and Gayla Grace name the “ghosts” haunting stepfamilies—and why you pull back when you want to lean in.
Vaneetha Risner knows the raw grief of unwanted divorce and betrayal. She gets church shame, lost identity, lingering triggers. Yet God has turned lament into deeper trust. This was never the plan, but it has forged faith. And it offers hope for yours.
When did “family time” become everyone scrolling in the same room? Ron Deal and Arlene Pellicane reveal how to manage screentime and raise screen-wise kids who look up, laugh, and live offline. Real connection still beats the algorithm every time.
Through "memory lane," fire-pit talks, and birthday cakes at graves, podcasters Justin & Kelly Walker show how grief triggers, alongside laughter and love, collide in a blended family of nine.