When Talking to Your Adult Child Feels Hard, Know What to Do Next.

The Workbook on Her Kitchen Table That Made the Hard Phone Calls Easier

Your daughter-in-law sends a two-word text. “Sounds good.”

You read it fourteen times. Is that a cold “sounds good”? A busy “sounds good”? Did she leave off the exclamation point on purpose? By the evening you’ve built a whole courtroom drama around two words, and you’re the one on trial.

I’ve watched hundreds of mothers do this. I’ve done it myself. And I can tell you the thing that finally helped wasn’t another book on the nightstand. It was a workbook on the kitchen table, one simple principle at a time, practiced in real life with real people who love their kids as much as you love yours.

It uses the same steady, quiet habits that the calmest mothers you know seem to have been born with (they weren’t, by the way, they practiced). The twist is that you build them one month at a time, so you’re never trying to fix the entire family before Thanksgiving.

Here’s the Problem Nobody Warns You About

You raised them. You did the 2am fevers and the school plays and the driving lessons where you gripped the door handle like it owed you money.

And now they’re grown, and somehow you can’t find your footing.

Maybe the texts go unanswered for days. Maybe you only see the grandkids when their schedule allows, and their schedule rarely allows. Maybe your son married someone who seems to read everything you say through a magnifying glass. Maybe you’ve been told you were a bad mother, and that one sentence has been rattling around in your head ever since.

And maybe you’re handling all of it alone. No husband across the table to say “you’re overthinking it, love.” Just you, your prayers, and a phone that stays quiet.

You’ve probably tried things already. Counseling. Therapy. A stack of self-help books with hopeful titles. You understood every word of them.

Then your daughter said something sharp on the phone, and every word went straight out the window.

That’s the bit nobody talks about. Knowing what to do and doing it while your heart is pounding are two very different skills.

What I want to show you is a way to close that gap.

You won’t have to chase your child for more contact. You won’t have to give a big speech, write the perfect letter, or get your son-in-law to finally see your side. You won’t have to wait for anyone else to change before you start feeling better.

And it works even if contact is limited right now. Even if the friction is with a spouse or partner more than your own child. Even if you’ve already spent good money on help that didn’t stick. Even if you’re doing this on your own and you’re tired.

Your First 30 Days

No overhaul. No homework mountain. Just one principle and a simple rhythm.

Hello, I’m Susie

My name is Susie Funk, and I coach mothers of adult children. My work is helping mothers become what I call a Mother of Influence.

A Mother of Influence is a mother who is:

• Emotionally independentShe is not at the mercy of her adult child’s moods, words, or choices.
• Skilled at bringing and inviting authenticity into the relationshipShe can navigate the current, real version of her adult child without sacrificing who she is or abandoning her non-negotiables.
• Persuasive without pressureShe continually stacks credibility through her example and guidance, making both more compelling, whether heeded or not.

A Mother of Influence is no longer controlled by:

• Her adult children’s opinions
• Their moods and choices
• How often they call
• Whether they approve of her

If you’re anything like the mothers I work with, you’re tired of feeling like you’re walking on eggshells in your own family. You love your kids fiercely. You just want it to feel easier between you.

What I Kept Seeing

I used to teach everything at once. All the principles, all the tools, all in one go.

The mothers understood it beautifully. They’d nod along. They’d take notes. Then a family birthday would come up, someone would make a comment about how they “always” do this or that, and the old habits would come rushing back like they’d never left.

The problem was never intelligence. These are wise, capable women. The problem was that emotions run high with the people we love most, and in those moments we do what we’ve always done.

Why This Matters So Much

Because your relationship with your adult child happens in the moments. It happens in the unanswered text, the tense hello at the door, the conversation about holidays that goes sideways in the first ninety seconds.

You can’t think your way through those moments. You can only practice your way through them.

And there’s something even bigger underneath it. Right now, your peace probably depends on how your child responds. A warm call and you sleep well. A cold one and you’re up at 3am replaying it. That’s an exhausting way to live, and you deserve better than a mood that’s controlled by somebody else’s phone battery.

What Makes This Different

Mother of Influence Practice focuses entirely on what you can control. Your own reactions. How you communicate. What you expect. And the stories you tell yourself about why your child did what they did (those stories are sneaky, and they are usually much meaner than the truth).

Most advice starts with your adult child: what to say to them, how to get them to call, how to get them to listen. This starts with you, and it happens in order.

It respects your adult child’s autonomy. No tricks, no manipulation, no clever scripts to get them to do what you want.

And it works even if your child doesn’t change a thing. That’s the point. You become a steadier, safer person to connect with, and your peace stops waiting on their permission.

With This, You Can

• Have a closer, more natural, less strained relationship with your adult child.
• Walk into a family event feeling grounded instead of braced for impact.
• Answer a hard text without three drafts and a sleepless night.
• Feel at peace on the days they call and on the days they don’t.

There’s Something You Should Know

I didn’t build this from a whiteboard. I built it from watching mothers struggle with the very thing I just described.

Two lessons kept showing up.

First, teaching everything up front was simply too much to use. And anything I sent digitally got lost. It sat in an inbox underneath a pharmacy reminder, three newsletters, and a cousin’s forwarded chain email about a miracle vegetable.

Second, and this one surprised me, the mothers who got the best results weren’t the ones who spent the most money. They were the ones who kept practicing. Month after month. Little by little.

So I built Mother of Influence Practice around exactly that. One principle a month. A physical workbook mothers actually open. And a community to practice alongside, so nobody’s doing this alone.

Or You Can Have It All in One Place

Mother of Influence Practice gives you the principle, the explanation, the real examples, the exercises, and the people to practice with. You just show up and work on one thing.

You can use it even if you’ve never been in a coaching program before. You can use it even if you’re not a “computer person,” because the most important piece arrives in your mailbox.

Here’s the Deal

I created this by watching where mothers got stuck and removing everything that got in the way. I cut out the theory overload so you can work on one thing, right away, in your own family.

Each month you get a principle, you understand it, and then you practice it until it becomes yours.

Unsure It’s Worth a Measly $99 a Quarter?

Here’s what that $99 is really doing for you:

• Turning the advice you already understand into something you can actually do when your heart is racing
• Giving you a calm place to bring the tricky situation with your son’s partner and get help thinking it through
• Helping you show up at the next family gathering as the steadiest person in the room
• Putting you in a group of mothers who understand, so you stop feeling like the only one whose phone stays quiet

Why Is It Only $99 a Quarter?

Because I learned that the mothers who do best are the ones who keep practicing. Not the ones who make one huge payment and burn out.

I wanted the price low enough that you can stay with it month after month without it becoming another source of stress. Steady practice needs a steady, comfortable price. So that’s what I made it.

Here’s Everything You Get

A Gentle Warning

You will make mistakes. You’ll practice a principle beautifully for two weeks and then snap at your son over something about the car seat. That’s normal. It’s part of the practice, and nobody in this group is keeping score.

I’ve made every one of those mistakes so you don’t have to make them alone.