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Crucial Support Parents Can Give College-Bound Children

College or university courses act as a fantastic opportunity for students young and old to develop their skills, learn more about themselves, and nurture their independence. For parents, it’s important to know when to step back and allow children to take control of their own lives during this transformational period. However, that doesn’t mean you have to stop being a crucial source of support for your youngsters. While your role as a parent might be transitioning away from the everyday caregiver position, your child will still be looking to you for guidance, strength, and even insights as they move through the next stage of their life. Here are crucial sources of support you can continue to give your college-bound children, even after they leave the nest.

Financial Support

Often one of the first things parents and students think about when planning for college is how they’re going to pay for tuition, accommodation, and other expenses. While your child can access support in the form of loans, grants, and scholarships, you can also search for other ways to help if you want to make sure your youngster isn’t struggling to make ends meet. You might start developing a savings account early in your child’s life, so you have extra cash to offer to help with things like travel costs and initial expenses. You could also look to flexible lines of credit, such as HELOC loans, which allow you to access extra money tied up within your home, to support your child throughout their educat

Mentoring and Coaching

There are so many different parenting styles and some line up with the different stages of parenting as well. During this stage of your child’s life, the chances are your role as a parent will be changing drastically. Your youngsters probably won’t be relying on you to cook and clean for them like they did in the past, but they’ll still need guidance and advice to ensure they can properly care for themselves when living on a campus, or away from home. As a mentor or coach, you can offer various forms of educational support, from guidance on how your child can budget effectively and make their money stretch further, to how they can plan and cook affordable meals. You can even offer tips on how to manage schedules, advice on studying methods, and insights into how your child can ensure they stay healthy away from home.

Emotional Support

Finally, while your child might technically be exploring life as a young adult now, that doesn’t mean they won’t need extra emotional support from their parents from time to time. College can be a stressful period in a youngster’s life, particularly as they learn more about themselves, and struggle to manage hectic schedules and project requirements. Fortunately for parents, emotional support is one of the easiest forms of help to give. All you need to do is make sure you’re there for your child when they need you most. Make sure you communicate with your youngster regularly, checking in on how they’re doing, and offering non-judgmental guidance when they ask for it. Motivate your child wherever you can, celebrating their achievements, and reminding them that they can learn, and move on from their mistakes.

Jeff Campbell