Detaching to me doesn't mean no longer loving or caring. I would not detach from a child under 18.
I do have one son who has decided to detach from us for his own reasons and I am trying to repair it, so far with no results, but he is basically a good person--I believe we will reattach one day. However, I have detached, meaning I don't walk around thinking about him often. I concentrate on the kids who want and need me. I live my life and enjoy the things that I do.
I also think that detaching means not bailing over 18 kids out of trouble because they will never get better if they don't experience the very worst. Hard? Yeah. But we did it and now we have a happy twenty-three year old daughter who is into health food and exercise instead of drugs. Good luck. I know it's HARD.
