Soon-to-be first year college students all over the world are separating from their childhoods—saying, “Goodbye” to friends, leaving their childhood bedrooms, and now emerging as an adult, learning to partner with their parents. They’re establishing their first households outside their family homes, a complicated endeavor often involving new responsibilities.
In readying to move, students are combing through a childhood’s worth of memories, deciding what items to take to college and what to purge in Marie Kondo-like fashion. Often, in such letting go, teens are both grieving the loss of their childhood innocence, while also excitedly anxious about the unknown life called, “Adulthood”, stretching out before them. Thus, the “moody teenager” may be even more “heavy with mood”, as they “grow up.”
Similarly, parents often traverse their own growing pains, as their “babies” stand on the edge of the nest ready to fly, witnessing their families enter: The Adult Children Era. While a younger child still living at home may cushion the transition, “This is the last time…” like thoughts can invade vacations and random evenings watching Netflix, an inconvenient reminder of the impending transition.
Parents and students also contend with questions about funding living expenses, beyond paying for college tuition. What incidentals and socializing will parents fund and what expenses should my eighteen year old pay for themselves? What expenses do students expect to pay for themselves? Will teens open credit cards? If a fiscal dimension is new to a parent-teen relationship, everyone is adjusting to even more complexities.
Furthermore, given the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, families may also contend with COVID vaccine requirements as a condition of on-campus residency, in addition to the typically required vaccines which can include Hepatitis B.
An on-going series of candid conversations, knowing when to strategically retreat from any one conversation is essential, given the potentially emotion-laden dialogue, as everyone navigates their way through the impending shifts in their family, and particularly for teens, their young lives.
Over twenty years, thousands of families have relied on Creative Marbles experts for their objective guidance in helping teenagers transition into a prosperous adulthood. Contact us for more information.
