Top 3 Ways to Support High School Senioritis
As a parent, watching this is hard to witness. It’s heavy lifting and sometimes even looks like “dragging” across the finish line (that is graduation). It’s all too real for most who are closing out their high school years. They’re checked out. They’re exhausted. They’d oversaturated and not in a position to wring themselves out like a sponge. The term “flooded” also aligns. It’s not a matter of if, but when it happens that a parent can make sure they’re ready for what comes next - college or not. Senioritis can be derailing and sometimes the “checking out” process in order to self-preserve, puts the student in a position for a rude awakening on a college campus. So how do we help?
Validate - This goes for the exhaustion and closing of a chapter, and the anxiety that comes with their next chapter. Whether they’re talking about it, sometimes Senioritis is really avoidance masked to hide the sadness of a chapter closing, and the fear of the unknown for what’s to come. Especially if your child had educational accommodations for learning or mental health in high school, you can bet that this transition is amplified for them. Check in with them so they can be attuned with themselves. How they present may not correspond with how they’re actually feeling.
Executive Functioning - If you did this for them, especially at the very end to make sure they got their diploma, it’s time to pull back entirely. They have to wake themselves up. They need to work a job. They need to regulate their tech use. They need to listen to their hunger cues and feed themselves. They need to do their own laundry. This is all in anticipation for whatever comes in August, they aren’t going to completely fall flat on their face.
Parent to Partner - A part of Senioritis comes with the adjustment of parenting a young adult, not a child. It’s important as a parent that you take a step back to look at how your parenting is shifting (or needs to shift) for this transition too. If you are overly involved, it will come out sideways in your relationship with your child. Giving space to let them lean into this transition for themselves will help them grow up. If you constrict that growth, it limits them to being stuck in this place of Senioritis. Basically, this time isn’t just about them, as it’s also about your changes too.
It’s an inevitable time that can cause a lot of stress, especially to parents. When your child starts to check-out, be aware of how you lean in because it may be enabling them to check-out even more than they already were. Basically what you do can have an opposite reaction.
For questions or comments contact Joanna.
