The Co-Pilot Agreement
One page, two voices, written together and kept on the refrigerator. It says out loud what families usually leave to guesswork: whose say is whose, now that the say is changing hands. The emerging adult writes first: decisions that are mine alone now, decisions I want company on and whose company I want, how I want to be asked about my life, my helpers chosen by me, one thing I am building this season. The family writes next: what we will always be on every road, what we are handing over this year whole, one thing we will stop doing because the pen has changed hands. Then together: how we repair when one of us gets this wrong (someone will; the repair is the teaching), and when we will read this page again. The emerging adult is the pilot. The family is the crew they choose, and crews get chosen out loud.
Your next step is a person
Your own table, over food; the emerging adult writes first.
At home · The high school years · Eighteen and beyond