Parental Adjustments
Parents who move may feel just as overwhelmed as their teens. Donna Secor, a school social worker at Forest Hills Central High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan, advises them to:
Get involved in at least one activity in the new community.
Maintain family routines from before the move, including family meal times.
Seek sources of emotional support as needed.
Minimize discussions of their unhappiness in front of their teen.
Remember that they are role models and try to employ positive coping strategies when feeling overwhelmed.
Make New Friends, but Keep the Old
Thanks to cell phones, IM, voice-over-Internet phones, and more, teens can easily keep in touch with old friends. Parents can help by:
Offering teens unlimited text plans in exchange for doing chores, joining a volunteer group, etc.
Downloading Skype or similar Web-based telephone options for lengthy chats.
Encouraging teens to set up a Web site or blog to chronicle their new adventures.
Inviting out-of-town friends to visit during school breaks and allowing their teens to travel back to their old hometown.
Beth Morrissey, MLIS, is a full time freelance writer who attended 7 schools on 10 campuses across 3 continents before she left home to go to college. Afterwards she devoted years to working with new teens as an international school librarian. Visit Beth online at www.bethmorrissey.com.
Melanie 05/07/08
My husband is in the army, and we have moved around a lot since our kids, 12 and 15, were born. They are used to the drill – when we tell them we’re moving, they have a system of getting involved in their new schools. First, we ask the principal for the directory of all the students, and then we get the names of students who are in particular clubs my kids are interested in joining. They write an email to one person in the club, and ask for some information. It’s a way for them to make a “buddy” before they enroll.
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