Parenting & Family Quote by Ron Taffel

Parenthood, in Ron Taffel's framing, isn't a chapter you add to your life; it's an identity edit so thorough it leaves no clean "before" to return to. The line lands because it refuses the sentimental version of having kids as self-fulfillment and instead describes a slow, almost stealth transformation. "Along the way" does a lot of work here: change isn't a single epiphany, it's the cumulative effect of bedtime negotiations, emergency pickups, money stress, new fears, recalibrated ambitions. By the time the child is "ready to move out", the parent has been remade in increments, which is why the shock isn't empty nest sadness so much as mild estrangement from your own former self.

The subtext is both warning and permission. It's a warning against expecting continuity: you can't keep your old rhythms, priorities, or even your emotional bandwidth intact. It's also permission to stop performing the fantasy of the unaltered parent who "has it all" and to admit that caregiving is a long-term trade: you exchange a certain kind of autonomy for a deeper, messier form of meaning.

As a writer associated with family psychology and practical guidance, Taffel is likely speaking to adults in the thick of raising kids, offering a narrative that normalizes disorientation. The punchline is timed to the cultural milestone of moving out, the moment when society expects closure. Instead, he suggests the real story is what happened to you while you were busy getting them there.