Grow Up! [antikvár]

Acknowledgments My wife, Betsy, is my partner in life, in happiness, in responsibility, in adulthood, and often in my regressions back into childhood. This book, like everything else I do, is done with her and maybe even because of her. Her reactions and observations about me and my reactions keep me grounded and sane. She's been the safety check on my reality testing throughout my struggles toward adulthood. Our children and their mates, Tina and Ken, Frank and Gay-bie, Ginger and Dale, continue to fascinate me, bolster me, connect me, and educate me, as they have done from the beginning. And now their children, Justin, Frank V, and Christopher, inspire me and project me into the future. Most of this book arises not just from my personal experiences but from the search for the secrets of adult happiness that I share with my patients, who have granted me the enormous honor of opening up their lives to me. In writing this book, and especially in the audacity of writing a chapter entitled "How to Be a Grown Woman," I needed help with the part of life I have not directly experienced. Of course, Betsy has opened herself totally to me for all these years, but in addition I have called most frantically and humbly upon the other women in my family. My psychologist daughter, Tina Pittman Wagers, who has been my writing partner on projects before, has been my strong right arm in this frightening chapter. She is not totally satisfied with the end result, but it does not drive her quite to the distraction that the first few drafts did. My sociologist/writer niece, Virginia Rutter, has been an especially insightful editor, supervisor, and critic, as has her psychologist husband, Neil Jacobson. There are few issues about life that I do not debate regularly with Virginia and Neil. Our daughter, Ginger Pittman Pistilli; our daughter-in-law, Gaybie Pittman; my sister, Joanna Pittman Fox; my sister-in-law, Julie Brawner; and our nieces, Anne Brawner Namnoum, Jennifer