TALLAHASSEE, FL -- With graduations taking place all across the country, one parent is concerned with handling stress.
In this Teen Talk discussion, Family Therapist Jane Marks shares way to have a stress and care-free celebration.
1. GRAD prep includes exactly what you are doing as a family and that is creating a celebration that marks this passage. For most families it is flowers, gifts, dinners or parties after graduation and sometimes trips. All of these make this accomplishment notable.
2. PARENTS, one of the toughest things is for us to incrementally release control and treat our teens like adults. Allowing them more opportunities to make decisions from here on is a good place to start, and you do this through mutual trust and respect to include affirmation throughout this graduating process.
3. ACCEPT their dreams and preferences and provide supports and solutions or ways to help them reach that. For teens and parents, certainly during this time there are feelings of regret over both parenting mistakes, missed opportunities and teenager's mistakes. No parent is perfect and no teenager is perfect.
4. YOUR teen needs to be very aware as they get ready to schedule their classes of their learning style and their study style. If they've gotten college credits in high school perhaps they don't have to take quite as heavy a load and that can make a big difference in managing that first term.
5. PREPARE your youngster for the down side of college life. Sometimes some teens experience isolation, exposure to risky situations, i.e., drugs, poor relationships, money issues. This is a good opportunity to do a refresher course.
