Helping Your Wildcat Adjust to Changes

All across the country, college students are returning home to finish out the remainder of their Spring semester away from campus and other students. If your child is returning home, and especially if they’re a first-year student, this can also mean being away from some of their newly-found freedoms.

Your Wildcat returning home early will likely conjure up a plethora of emotions for both you and them.

Disappointed, confused, uncertain, irritated, relieved, grateful, angry, scared, overwhelmed, trapped, annoyed… while this is far from an all-inclusive list of what you might be going through, it’s entirely possible you and/or your student have already experienced many of these feelings within a single day.

Living in close quarters again can be challenging at any time, but throw in a ton of uncertainty and the inability to leave the house and you have a recipe for what could create some difficult moments together.

While this is a difficult time for the world, some of the difficulty at home can be mitigated by setting expectations and boundaries. When we communicate what we need and expect from each other, we can help avoid negative feelings or resentments. Simultaneously, giving grace, understanding and flexibility is incredibly important during this time.

Here’s some tips and tricks to help establish a positive home environment:

Establish responsibilities

Things might look very different in your house than how they looked before. If a younger sibling is being home-schooled and you’re expecting your Wildcat to help out, set a schedule and create a plan together.

If new chores or rules are in place, discuss them early.

Discussing these responsibilities early may help in avoiding the development of resentment and frustration – but being understanding that this is a whole new landscape to navigate for each of you – and communicating that this is fluid and things might have to change, is helpful, too.

Establish working schedules and spaces

All families and homes are structured differently. You may be living in a one-bedroom apartment or a five-bedroom house. You or your student may be an essential employee working out of the house every day, or you may both be spending your entire day at home together (with other siblings or family members, too!). Establish where you are going do your work, as well as a space for your Wildcat to do their work, with the entire family. Devise a schedule so others can respect your timing. Even if you’re just taking it day by day, communicating each day what your needs look like over breakfast or coffee will help others in the house maintain respect, and also help them understand when they can interact with you.

Make it fun when possible

Things feel very heavy right now – so find the light.

Order a new board game or puzzle, do an online yoga class together, try a new recipe that the whole family can help with, encourage your Wildcat to maintain connections with their friends from campus.

When we make time to laugh, play, and learn together we may just find that we create cherished moments that we would have never had the opportunity of before.

Please stay well and continue doing your part to social distance.

If you are a healthcare professional or essential employee, we THANK YOU and applaud for all you’re doing. You are our heroes.

Sincerely,

Housing & Residential Life