Bea Lewis

Editor's note: While we bid adieu to Bea Lewis' weekly 'This Day and Age' column today, look for her occasional byline in future Thursday Charm sections.

I've always been one to cry when I have to say goodbye . . . and writing this column is no exception.

I've had more than five great years and 300 columns exploring issues and intergenerational conflicts for "This Day and Age'' and bringing to you readers some answers to the family problems that confound us all.

While there are thousands of parenting books, newspaper and magazine columns available - from How to Train Your Toddler in Ten Days to How to Cope with the Terrible Teens and maybe a few that get your child ready for college - little is offered to help us get along with children when they become adults. Legally that means 21, but today some children become emotionally and financially independent years later, so we older parents are on our own for the next 30 to 40 years.

Relationships between parents and adult children (challenging to begin with) are complicated by the fact that we are living longer in the midst of a rapidly changing society.

Previous expectations for family life have become old-fashioned or obsolete, so This Day and Age became a platform to share ideas and ways of coping with the often different ways our children live today. I hope it helped serve as a springboard to discuss the conflicts and confusion, joys and pains, losses and gains that we face with our grown children.

Thanks to you readers for all your inquiries and your suggestions. Sometimes you agreed with what was said in the column, sometimes you didn't. Either way, you illuminated a family issue in a new light, showed the other person's side of the story. When you walk in someone else's shoes, you learn to have compassion for them - and hopefully to realize more of the good and less of the bad.

We all have problems - but when we explore, share and even laugh about them - we can better understand our children and their way of life . . . in this day and age.

A quick thank-you to my partners in putting out my weekly column. First, my best friend and husband, Ed, who made sure my grammar and spelling were on target. To my daughters - Laurie, Jennifer and Kimberly - who have taught me about compassion and forgiveness and were always available to discuss an upcoming column with sensible suggestions. To my sister, Evelyn Grapek, for her encouragement and to my many girlfriends at Aberdeen Golf and Country Club in Boynton Beach, who shared their thoughts at our Saturday morning after-exercise gab fests and were the impetus for the development of the column.

I also thank the many experts, available day and night to answer your questions, especially Dr. Holly Katz, clinical director of the Center for Group Counseling in Boca Raton; Olivia Tartakow and Dr. Elaine Rotenberg, both of the Jewish Family and Children Services in West Palm Beach; retired psychotherapist Ruth Kesslin of Palm Beach Gardens; and Dr. Deborah Tannen, communications expert and author of the bestseller, You're Wearing THAT? Conversations Between Mothers and Daughters.

And to my editor, Anne Rodgers, who had confidence in me since Day 1 and never let me forget it!

Original Article in the Palm Beach Post Living