When You are Stuck at home with Parents
Teens, you have been slowly emerging to your adulthood. By the time you are juniors, many of you can and do drive, and you make your own appointments, and you have your own life and priorities. Suddenly the whole world is stuck at home, and you are not allowed the freedoms you have become to take for granted. Many of you have even begun to expect those freedoms are yours.
Now, for most of you, you still have school. Many have online platforms to take classes. The College Board has set up AP Review classes for you as well. https://www.ajc.com/blog/get-schooled/college-board-will-shorten-tests-give-them-online-smart-move/JQlxyiPoM2ZJZK6jjiBtuI/ and https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/about-ap-exams/practice-for-exams
So, I know you are busy with schoolwork. For most, especially juniors, there is some distress as those standardized college entrance exams have been cancelled. But both ACT and the College Board are going to add at least one more date for testing this summer and/or fall. You will have time to take the tests, and some colleges will also have test options this year for applying seniors in the fall. You can slow down and not feel so anxious at that part of the college process. As these are extraordinary times, colleges will be altering admissions slightly in the fall to understand your GPA and your tests, if you choose to submit any scores. Be reassured about this. Colleges have vested interest in accepting you!
However, what you may be tempted to do during this hiatus from attending classes and spending day after day with the same people, is to become lazy about studying. Many schools have invoked a lot of homework and problem sets to upload or complete in Google Classroom. Doing these can get tedious and you naturally have an urge to go out and see friends to relax and distract. However, you cannot. You can entertain with gaming, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. However, even after a week this can become tedious as well, even if you game with others.
You are also unused to being around your parents so much, and for many, this can become irksome. Your parents are also unused to being around you so much!! How to deal without getting annoyed and argumentative? You can offer some compassion to your parents. Yes! Sympathy for your parents. Their primary concern is YOU. Keeping you safe. Keeping you progressing in life. Keeping you feeling positive and supported. That can become exhausting. Perhaps, you could offer to do some role reversal for a change. You be the one to actually do the laundry or cook the meals without being asked to do so. Take on your adult responsibility that you yearn to have and exercise your maturity. Your parents will be so impressed with your ability to step up and contribute.
You can also do something to improve your spirit and mind in other ways. Many of you are doing some workouts at home, or with other through Zoom. Many of you have gyms or coaches who send daily workouts for you to do. Great. Share your workout with a willing parent! Ever think to include them? Working out together can be super motivating for your parent, and it can also help them to distract and not worry as much. Of course, you will beat them physically for sure, but they will get a work-out in and they might even find it worthwhile to keep it up. You can be their coach! You get to drive the program and, in the end, both of you will feel better about yourselves.
An old school way to make life confined be more pleasant, board games or simply scavenger hunts at home. Use your imagination, there are great games you can play at home without boards as well. We all need to the opportunity to burn off some stress and energy and a little competition can be a release as well.
You have so many outlets to distract on your phone alone. However, you will not have so many opportunities to share yourself with your parents and you grow up and leave home. They will not have so many chances to enjoy your teen times and be able to remember with great fondness. Take a moment as we are pretty much stuck here for a month and actually plan four days in the month where you are your parents’ coach and supporter. When you take your creative energy and channel it towards helping to relieve a moment of your parents’ stress, you will feel productive and rewarded for your generosity of soul.
During the month of April, I am willing to set up appointments for juniors to begin a polished, comprehensive student resume of activities. All you have to do, is Contact me.
Be safe, be well, stay home, and we will all get through this together! PEACE.
