College is something not everyone has in store for their future, but when you do, there’s going to be some huge changes in your life you’ll need to undertake. And when you’re a parent, watching your fledging going through such a change, you want to do everything you can to help them get on with it. But that’s not always easy.
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You’ve already gone through all of the motions to make sure your child knows absolutely everything they need to get through their first year without any panic attacks, but sometimes there’s still quite a few things someone in their late teenage years can fear that us parents just don’t pick up on.
So if know your child well, and well enough to know they’re a nervous wreck when it comes to advancing their education, here’s some teaching tips to help him or her cope with the little things that are plaguing their thoughts.
Not Getting On with Your Roommate
We don’t always get the chance to choose the people we’re going to be living with, and because of that, we’re not always going to get on with the people who are just a room over from us or in the same room with us. However, this fear shouldn’t immediately confound your child! Make sure to remind them it’s perfectly OK for them not to get on with the person they share a dorm with.
We’re not always going to get on with everyone around us in life. Believing you need to have confidence to make them like you is just another sign that you’re nervous. True confidence is knowing you’re going to be perfectly fine whether someone likes you or not. If someone doesn’t like you, you can still be mature, respectful and civil towards them.
Not Being Able to Use a Schedule
When you’re in college, you need to be able to balance everything at once: your school work, your grocery shopping, a part time job etc. And that’s immediately daunting to anyone who even thinks about what living on a campus is going to be like!
A quick solution: try using the time now to practice; get your child to shop for them-self, to use their summer job to better estimate how much time they’re going to have to themselves. There’s nothing like learning by doing!
If Someone Knows They Aren’t Ready Yet…
If your child is still in their last year of high school, doing as much as they can to make sure their grades match the conditional offers the universities have offered them, there’s still a bit of learning they can do if they have the time.
It can make a huge difference, not only their application – and make them stand out more from the crowd, but it can also make them feel a lot more ready to take on the big wide world.
Managing The College Stress Epidemic was offered by Generations College, a community college in Chicago
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