Transisitioning from the relaxed atmosphere of summer to the hectic pace of the school year can be quite daunting for students. Less sleep, stressful extracurricular expectations, and rigorous homework assignments lead to stress. Shawna Cagan, author of "Back to School, Back to Stress," lists six warning signs for parents: lack of happiness or enthusiasm, irritability, difficulty concentrating, preoccupation with negative thoughts, nightmares, and inability to connect with friends and loved ones. Identifying and managing stress should be a high priority because stress causes headaches, insomnia, indigestion, and increased susceptibility to illness.
Before considering getting your teenager's class schedule changed to an easier load or requiring that he/she quit certain extracurricular activities, talk with your teen about time management and relaxation techniques. The University of Indiana provides the following methods:
- Enforce a bedtime that ensures your teen will get at least seven hours of sleep each night. Restricting phone calls after a certain hour and instilling a week day curfew may help.
- Make exercise a family affair. Whether you all join a gym or take a brisk evening walk, you will not only create time for exercising but for communicating and bonding as a family. If your student is already involved in after-school sports, don't assume that he/she is getting regular cardiovascular workouts. Find out if an exercise regiment is incorporated into their practices and if so, this should be enough to keep your teen in physical shape, but if the routine is stressful, a "de-stressing" evening stroll would still help.
- Avoid providing stimulants, such as caffeine and tobacco because they increase nervousness and anxiety levels. Plus, if they are consumed in the evening, they will prevent a solid night's sleep. While you can't control what your teen drinks outside the home, by offering healthy and flavorful substitutes for soft drinks, you can help him/her make wiser choices. Do we ever really outgrow Kool-Aid?
- Ensure that your teen maintains a healthy diet. As parents, your life is hectic too, so homemade dinners aren't always realistic. However, today's grocery stores offer numerous tasty, partially prepared dinners, so fast food chains don't have to be the only fast dinner option.
- Suggest relaxation techniques. Taking a long bubble bath, praying, meditating, or taking deep breaths can all help, depending on the amount of time available.
While we can't zap our lives back into the blissful days of summer, we can learn to cope with the busy schedules of fall. Just remember, don't let your teen try to cope alone; support from friends and family is essential.
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