How to Psychologically Prepare for Your Child to Leave for College

Your child has gone away to college for the first time, what do you do? Along with the preparation to get them ready, enrolled and moved; there is the psychological adjustment factor. Parents may have a tendency to underestimate the degree of loss they may feel in response to the change or reduction of responsibilities. You may feel sadness, anger, anxiety and possible depression. Your child is launching for the first time and will feel a mix of emotions as well. Here are some simple guidelines on how to keep the lines of communication open.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Provide Guidance: remember that although you may have reduced parental demands; your child still needs your adult guidance. Your child will need your guidance to make a healthy transition into adulthood. Helping your child become a responsible adult is perhaps one of the most important tasks of being a parent.
2. Provide Support: life today is very fast paced, yet we still need the comfort and support of family and loved ones. Wisely use the available technology, i.e. phone cards, email, test messages, long distance services, and long hand letter writing.
3. Model Health: make adjustments in your personal life to replace your time commitments by readjusting your personal commitment to yourself. Focus on your own health and wellness, creativity, and personal development.

Tips & Warnings

• Make their home visit special; fix a favorite meal or go to a special place together.
• Knowing that our children need our continued guidance may decrease the impact of the loss.
• Even anticipated changes in role can come with unexpected loss, take the time to understand your feelings.
• Reaching out to others and openly communicating your feelings may help ease the transition for you and your child.
• Human demands have increased while human physical resources have not. We tend to push ourselves to do more, want more, and be more than any other time in civilization, and this may be a time of increased stress in the family.
• Talk openly with your soon to be adult child about the changes in relationship and help them develop a healthy attitude.
• Allow yourself to grieve over the adjustments and loss, but if your feel you are becoming inactive or sleeping too much or too little seek professional intervention.