Hippie Chil
d has started Year 12. I think I’m going to take up serious drinking. In fact, I don’t know why Liquorland doesn’t have a discount card for HSC parents, it would be a marketing goldmine.
I’ve given her the pep talk. We started off strong, she even did some study on day one. Now if we can just get through the next 364 days we’ll be sweet.
There’s a site which interviewed successful Australians about their final year at school called There’s Life After it’s created by ReachOut.com a mental health site for young people which has loads of resources on dealing with exams, study stress and so on. I’m not sure any of the interviewees dropped out of school, but the head of the ANZ bank did have a panic attack in the middle of his maths exam and walked out of the room. A very kind supervisor talked him back in.
I’m trying to accept there are a lot of different ways to get into uni if we stuff this up. But dear god it would be easier to just get the ATAR you need first time around. Do you think I’m a little too invested in this?
Of course Hippie Child doesn’t know what ATAR she needs because she can’t decide what she wants to do. Again, in my mind I’m clear on what she SHOULD do, I just wish she would catch up with me. I know, I know, her decision blah blah blah. I am trying not to influence, really I am. I’ve even stopped talking about the Plan A I’ve come up with, well except for the occasional slip up, but I’ve really tried to be good.
Please note it is very hard for helicopter parents to let children make their own decisions, they are so SLOW at doing so.
In the meantime, I will just learn to live with the fact EVERYTHING that goes wrong is my fault. Printer out of ink? My fault Lost school book? My fault. No milk for breakfast? My fault. Well OK that one might be my fault they did remind me about the milk yesterday.
I will comfort, listen, book massages, lend the car, proof read, buy ink and whatever else it takes to get through this next year and at the end, whatever the result, we will celebrate.
Cheers to HSC parents everywhere.
hi janine – it does sound stressful. life is a lot easier for helicopter parents if they can back off a little and let the child handle her struggles. in your house, you might want to assign jobs – one child could be in charge of that printer and keeping it in ink. your last sentence says it. she may struggle through or it may be a great year, but whatever happens, you’ll celebrate her and her accomplishments when the time comes. good luck!
Oh I feel your pain, having been through it all last year. Although I love your sense of humour about it as well. We’d already had a few stressful years where my son did drop out of school in Year 10, tried other options, came back to it and got through at last – BIG relief, and he’s now at Uni and figuring out where he’s heading in life.
Having dropped out of school myself in year 11, I was almost relaxed about the whole saga because I knew there were alternate pathways to getting to where he wanted to be, but he was s till stressed, and it’s certainly true that getting the ATAR you need makes it easier.
Good luck with it all, I’m cheering you all on.
I’m clinging to the fact you got through it!