Lisa M. Desautels is the Vice President of Student Affairs at Thomas College. Lisa is responsible for the functional areas of counseling services, health services, disability services, leadership development, and more. Transitions can be tough on everybody, not just for your young adult headed off to college. There will be times where they might phone home for a little bit of support or where they might just want to come back home, what should a parent do? Lisa offers some advice.
Key Takeaways
- What do you do if your children get homesick at college?
- When your young adult goes off to college, it’s a transition for the whole family.
- Transitions are tough for everybody, but you can lighten the burden by having these open conversations in the summer.
- Homesickness can come on suddenly for your child. It can hit them when they realize their missing special moments back home.
- What should you do if they’re not getting along with their college roommate?
- You get two types of homesick calls.
- It can be tempting to bail your child out, but the best way through is forward. Ask them questions as to why they feel so lonely and isolated.
- Should parents call the school to add additional support to the teachers/counselors?
- Sometimes teens just need to be reaffirmed that they can make it.
- Remember, we want to teach our children how to problem solve, especially when they’re away from home.
Resources:
- Connect on LinkedIn
- lisamdp@msn.com
“2/3rds of students feel lonely or home sick at some point.”
“Transitions are tough. Whether it’s to college, moving out, joining the military. At 18, they are beginning to step into this adult world and there’s a lot of unknowns.”
“Allow your teens to problem solve. We are teaching them a skill on problem solving, not just taking the obstacle out of the way.”
