Dear Students:
You may remember I encouraged you in 11th grade to start meeting with your parents once a week for 20 minutes to discuss life after high school. This is the best way to keep your parents in the loop, while still staying in charge of your own future.
Since then, of course, your plans have nicely taken shape, and the folks feel pretty informed. With this mission accomplished, it’s easy to see why you might feel you can stop these weekly meetings.
Yes. About that.
It would seem something has happened since you first carved 20 minutes out of your week to talk with your parents. To begin with, they’ve learned to give you space; most parents think it’s crazy to limit themselves to 20 minutes a week to talk about your future, especially during the weeks in the fall when you were working on applications and telling them absolutely nothing beyond their allotted time. They’ve learned to trust you more, which will come in handy over time—like once you’re on your own, when you buy your first couch, and name your first child after a Taylor Swift song.
But something else has happened. Because you met once each week when no one was rushing to get you anywhere, your parents had a chance to see what you’ve made of yourself since the last time things weren’t so crazy—which for most families, is when you were about four. I have to tell you—they really liked what they saw. And they’d like to keep seeing it every week for 20 minutes.
This probably makes no sense to you, but when you came home and said “Last Winter exam! Yes!”, they said, “Last Winter exam? No!!” They told you they cried when you went to this year’s Sadie Hawkins Dance because they thought you looked nice, right? Nope—last one. And remember how they once dreaded having you home from school for any reason? Not so much now.
Through the 20-minute meetings, your parents realize they have a child who is smart, knows who they are, and understands a little about how the world works—and that child is moving out of the house in six months. Giving you up then is something they’ll figure out; giving you up now is something they would just as soon not do.
Of course, you don’t have to talk about the future—now is not the time to sit in the living room, holding hands and listening to the cuckoo clock chirp away until the college decisions arrive. Order some food in, catch up on a movie, work a jigsaw puzzle—do something, and do anything together.
Love is as much a verb as it is a noun, and showing them what you feel at a time of uncertainty (for you and them) can make a memory that will last far longer than whatever State U or a potential employer has to say in a couple of weeks.
No decision will change the way they feel about you, just like it shouldn’t change the way you feel about yourself. Twenty weekly minutes of meeting time that isn’t “required” will bring that home as nothing else can, and build a stronger base for whatever is next.
Give it some thought. They’re sure thinking about it—they’ve told me as much.
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