Starting College Life Essay Sample

Introduction

Today’s college kids need more support more than ever from their parent. This can be attributed to the fact that today’s parent spent more time with their kids at each and every moment with their children as they grew up. However, parents need to be cautioned on the dangers of helicopter parenting. They need to make enough sacrifices so as to allow their children to embrace personal development. It is true that, all parents have the desire to equip their children with enough necessary skills to last them the whole of their life (Christian College Guide). It is every parent’s dream that his or her kids will turn all right in life. That the children will make the best in their environment and that they will make the best out of life. In my view, parenting is a complex task, and there come a time when a lot of confusion sets in especially when a child is transiting from childhood to adulthood. Most parents find themselves in a compromising situation not knowing what to do and what not to do.
Most parents understand that they should give their students the freedom to indulge in new experiences in college, but they do not know how to offer that freedom (Christian College Guide). Also importantly, parents fail to determine what level of freedom is good for their kids for proper individual growth. Also importantly, college kids also find themselves in a dilemma after being granted all that level of freedom (Washington Post). The aim of this paper is to look at parenting at the start of college life. In addition to that, the paper examines the college kid’s life in its entirety in order to give a general feeling of what freshmen in college go through as they transit from one level to another.

My background

In the next one semester, I will be a transiting to my junior classes in college. College life for me has not been very marshy and mellow. I live with my dad who shows little concern about my academic performance. He believes in paying my school fees and leaving the rest to me. When I was a little younger, he used to be concerned about my academic grades, school life, friends, and everything about school in general. However, now that am a young adult, he expects me to behave like one and be responsible for my life in each activity that I undertake. English is my second language, and when I joined the school as a freshman, I had a lot of difficulty in Communicating. I had to concentrate on improving my communication ability since other people now viewed me as a young adult in college.

Life in college

Reset research reveals that lack of parental involvement in college life students result in certain negative traits such as personal inefficiencies, drugs, and sex indulges and of lack of a clear vision (Washington Post). My dad set his last foot in college during my admission. Since then, he has been missing in action in my college life. I often strive do understand his situation, but I also wish he could be able to show concern and assist me in some of the college life issues. For instance, most freshmen require a lot of assistance on various issues, for instance, college life objectives, relationship, bullying, money, dormitory issues, and course work issues. My dad has been missing these particular aspects. However, I feel parenting should not stop even after one joins college. Most of our generation has been by parents who were with us during each baby step we undertook. Therefore, by parents leaving us on our own after joining college, they leave a void, a vacuum in us that is hard to fill. What I am just striving to put across is that parents should show concern in college student’s life.
Parent’s concern over the college student will give them a sense of direction, a sense of achievement and motivate them towards achieving their life goals (Whitbourne). We all need a tap at the back in order to keep me as focused. There are days that I wake up in college and question myself whether to attend classes, participate in school activities or just sit around and do nothing. However, if dad showed concern in school, I would never have such thoughts since I would have a clear guideline of what I am supposed to achieve while at school.
As a freshman, various issues require other individual perspectives in order to solve. Parents need to be close to their college kids in order for them to share their life experiences together. I have experienced other students begin to indulge in very unruly behaviors due to the lack of parent involvement in their lives. College students begin to indulge in risky sexual behaviors and use of harmful drugs as a way to calm themselves whenever college life stress sets in. However, if parents were involved in their life, they could have at least sorted out some of these issues.
However, parent involvement in college student life should be well balanced. It should not be overdone. I recently had a case where parents did home works for their kids, covered for their kid’s self-inefficiency. All what parents should do is act as a buffer, and they should allow their children to take some of the life shocks and should only set in to help them bounce back to life.

Conclusion

In conclusion, college life requires a lot of parental involvement as well as college student willingness and desire to succeed. Parents need to be concerned about college kid’s welfare from the first day they set their foot in college to the last day they leave. However, parents should strike a balance between their parenting roles in order to allow the kids a room to grow on their own. In simpler terms, parenting should not be overdone. Lastly, parents should expect to let go at a certain point in time after the college kid has gotten into the right frequency of life (Christian College Guide).

Work cited

Washington Post, 'How Helicopter Parents Are Ruining College Students'. N.p., 2015. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
Whitbourne, Susan Krauss. 'The Myth Of The Helicopter Parent'. American Psychologist (2013): N.p Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
Christian College Guide,. 'Parenting Your freshman'. N.p., 2015. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.