The Good-Enough Mother

Roland Y. Kim, Ph.D.

Volume I — Being There

From infancy through childhood, Volume I explores how safety, emotional regulation, boundaries, responsibility, and self-control gradually become capacities the child can carry within.

Volume II — Letting Go

From adolescence into adulthood, Volume II follows the child’s movement toward privacy, differentiation, independence, identity, intimate relationships, and departure from home. Mother’s task gradually changes from authority and protection toward consultation, availability, and adult-to-adult relationship.

The Principle Behind Both Volumes

The mother who can eventually be left is often the mother who was reliably there when leaving was not yet possible.

Together, the two volumes present parenting not as child management but as a changing developmental relationship in which Mother grows too.