I stopped parenting my 5 kids when they went to college. It changed our relationship.

Fiordaliso/Getty Images I chose not to monitor my children's college grades or emails. Letting go helped them develop independence and responsibility. Now I'm supporting them through adulthood instead of managing it. When my children enrolled in college , I decided to step away from supervising their education. I would no longer keep too close an eye on their grades or class performance. I confess that it was a selfish decision, but as the mother of five , I'd already spent too many hours checking homework, reviewing tests, and reading book reports. By my calculation, I'd signed 260 report cards, four a year per child, over a 28-year period from when my oldest entered kindergarten until my youngest graduated from high school. Some friends disagreed with my decision, saying, "As long as we're paying tuition, we're checking grades."