Your College Student is Home. Now What?
Colleges and universities nationwide are suspending on-campus learning with many transitioning to online learning to complete the quarters or semester. Heritage is here to support you and your college student to make a successful transition for all those returning home.
- Emotional Support: Be attentive to the variety of emotions your college student may be experiencing, including temporary elation, grief/loss, confusion/disorientation, and denial among others. Such an abrupt change in their semester may be particularly difficult for seniors and those who invested in sports, theater, capstone projects, and celebrations which will be modified or cancelled all together. Try to avoid cliche responses as they seek to make sense of why their world has been significantly disrupted. Instead, you may respond with things like "I'm here to support you as you adjust to being back home" or "Tell me more about your experiences, so I can better imagine what this is like for you." Expect your college student to focus on remaining connected to their friends and/or professors by spending ore time on social media.
- Academic Support: Refrain from putting too much pressure on them to resume responsibilities, such as full-time work. Unlike summer breaks, their primary task should remain their academic work. Support them by creating a home learning environment where they have a designated study space. This space should allow for proper focus and honor their academic work. If a space like this does not exist in your home, consider ways of designating certain times when a shared area will be kept free from distractions.
- Clear Expectations: Discuss how to best live together as adults in a shared household. Frame conversations by considering how all can respect one another in the home. Have upfront conversations about shared household duties and lifestyle choices. Seek to empower your returning student rather than reverting back to high school patterns. If you have expectations about their involvement in family life, have honest conversations early in their transition.
Do not hesitate to call upon a Heritage therapist for one or two mediation sessions to work out the dynamics of your new living situations. Contact Dr. Chris Mazzarella about individualized or group coaching for more information.More about Chris Mazzarella, Psy.D.