Wednesday, August 19, 2009

It Must Be Mid-August

How can you tell that it's mid August?

The weather is beautiful, but your previously active and sporty son is now sitting on the couch watching re-runs on TV - and won't leave.

You offered to take your daughter and her friends to play mini-golf, a game she loves, but she snips at you, "Who wants to play that stupid game?"

Your friend Sara calls to say she can't meet you for coffee because her three kids are fighting - which is strange because they've been so nice to each other all summer.

What is going on? Why is everyone so "out-of-sorts"?

It’s mid-August Angst!

Although is still feels like summer and should be a relaxed, fun time, your kids see back-to-school ads everywhere, their required summer reading books are only ¼ of the way done and there’s only a few weeks left of summer. Most kids begin to feel “out of sorts” about transitioning back to school, but for kids in high school, it’s especially stressful. And, no wonder they feel this way. For the kids playing fall sports, they face pre-season double sessions and the anxiety of making the team. For others, they feel stress about trying out for music, theater or speech and debate groups, or joining new clubs. And all kids worry about unknown teachers, classes, and lots of homework every night. Toss in SAT prep and college applications and you can understand why they are not feeling their relaxed summer selves.
So, how can you help your stessed teen transition back to school? With compassion, empathy, good humor, and as one mom suggested, “lots of ice cream!”

Give your teen permission to be temporarily “out-of-sorts” and acknowledge that this time of year is just plain stressful for everyone.

Saying it out loud validates their feelings, let’s them know these are normal emotions, and helps to dissipate them.

And, just like when they had to give a speech in front of the class for the first time, or were about to go to sleep-away camp - they stressed, they did it, and they grew from it.