When your child goes off to college, it is a change for everyone. This is a great time to talk with your child about the things they will experience during their first year of school. Talking about these things can help them be more confident about choosing their career and not giving in to peer pressure.
Talk About Ways of Paying for Their Education
College is expensive, and more and more students graduate with debt they can’t pay off for years after graduation. While it’s normal to graduate with debt, there are other options that can lessen or remove this burden from your child. If you have a home, you might look to taking out a home equity line of credit (HELOC) to make higher education more affordable for your child. This allows you to tap into a resource you already own and pay back the credit on your own terms.
Help Them Learn How to Take Action
Your child should know that even as a freshman, they have the power to positively make a difference in someone’s life. They might be busy if graduation from high school is right around the corner, but this is a great time to teach them that they should never be too busy to impact someone else.
Taking positive action can come in many different forms, so help your child look for opportunities, like helping an elderly person you know or doing volunteer work. Consider making it a family event to get everyone involved. But make sure your child knows that when they are a college student or living on their own, it will be up to them to look for opportunities they can take to make a difference.
Talk About Managing Emotions
Many college students aren’t preparing for the academic rigors after high school, but even more aren’t prepared emotionally. That’s because they may face situations that result in frustration, disappointment, anger, or loneliness. It’s important for them to know how to overcome anxiety and deal with these feelings so they don’t just build up.
Help them learn a few ways to cope with their emotions. Working out, doing a hobby, talking with a friend, or even journaling might all be ways that can help them regulate these emotions in a healthier way. If your child can’t cope in a healthy way, they might turn to an unhealthier way, like alcohol or even drugs, to drown the pain.
Teach Them to Stand Their Ground
It’s important for college students to know and learn to say no to a situation they do not want to be in. There is a lot of peer pressure in college, and if they aren’t living at home, they may not have that support system to help them when they don’t want to do something they are being pressured to do. College students don’t always grasp how important a situation is or what the consequences can be of remining in that situation. It’s not uncommon for them to think nothing can harm them, and they may take more risks.
