When Your Child Says "I Do": Letting Go and Loving Well

Many Christian parents are familiar with the Bible’s teaching that married couples leave their parents and cleave to each other. But what does this mean for the couple's parents? How does their relationship with their child change? And what about the relationship with their new son- or daughter-in-law?

The challenges faced by the parents of newlyweds are often overlooked. But in this minibook, Chris Polski draws on Scripture and personal experience to provide thoughtful and practical guidance for parents seeking to build healthy relationships with their children and children-in-law. ​He emphasizes the importance of entrusting adult children to God and giving them space to build their own family traditions. At the same time, he counsels parents to warmly embrace their child-in-law and think constructively about how to parent their married child. By God’s grace, the family will look different, but the bonds between generations can still be strong.

Chris Polski, MDiv, DMin, serves as the lead pastor at Trinity Church Kirkwood (PCA) in suburban St. Louis. His deepest passion is to help foster healthy and thriving local churches and joyful and growing followers of Christ. In addition to serving as an adjunct faculty member at Covenant Seminary, he is the founding director of Trinity Pastoral Succession Planning and is the author of the minibooks When Your Child Says “I Do” and How to Relate to Your Parents After Marriage.