by Michelle Kelley, LCSW
Girls Stand Strong, Warrenton, Virginia

So your child is heading to college this fall. Congratulations!

For parents and high school seniors alike, this is an emotionally charged and bittersweet time. It is a time to remember and reflect on your teenager’s personal, academic, athletic and extracurricular achievements and milestones from grade school through high school. It is a time to celebrate their forthcoming graduation, emerging independence and transition into young adulthood.

It can also be a time of mourning for parents who must come to grips with letting go of the beloved child in whom they have invested so much: so much time, so much hope, so much energy, so much attention, and so much worry.

While your teenager is savoring the final days of their high school career and all the traditional rites of passage that go with it — Senior Prom, graduation ceremonies and graduation parties — you also deserve to be recognized and commended for all you have done to prepare your child for college, and to promote and develop your child’s self-reliance and independence. You have doubtless spent many hours together with your child researching and evaluating college choices, visiting college campuses, and ensuring that college applications were completed and submitted on time.

Now that these tasks are behind you, you have yet another important role and mission as a parent: ensuring that your child is emotionally prepared for college.

Read More: Warrenton Lifestyle Magazine Article June 2013.

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This article was originally published in Warrenton Lifestyle Magazine, June 2013.