One of our best tools as parents is being prepared. As your son or daughter gets to the middle school years, get ready for at least occasional conflicts. Think through what is truly important to you. Is the youngster’s hairstyle as important as homework? Isn’t curfew more of a concern than crabbiness? Obviously, dawdling is a lot easier to accept than drugs. As these give-and-take situations start, know ahead of time what areas you are willing to negotiate and what areas are absolutes.
TIPS FOR PARENTS OF JUNIOR HIGH STUDENTS
The first tip is thinking ahead.
Be willing to listen.
But don’t poke or pry. Kids this age value independence and often seem secretive. Keeping to themselves is part of the separateness they are trying to create. Let them know you’d love to help them, but don’t push them into a defensive position.
Don’t hesitate to remind your middle-schooler about appointments and due dates.
Try to think ahead about materials required for a project (unless you look forward to late-evening visits to the store). This will not last forever. When this same child was learning to walk, we held his or her hands and made the path smooth. Now he or she is learning to take on a tremendous assortment of life-tasks and changes; hand-holding (but not the firm, physical grip previously necessary) is needed for about a year or so as your middle-schooler gets started on the road to being a responsible adult.
Encourage your middle-schooler to keep a daily list.
Make a list with a few things on it to be done that day (weekly is too much). It may be necessary to assign a specific time to each task. When the task is completed, draw a line through it to show accomplishment.
Help your child by setting up smaller goals.
Clean off your bed; get five assignments done tonight; assemble the materials for the project. Preadolescents have trouble structuring tasks so that they are more approachable. In an even and off-hand way, we can help them in this.
Break down big chores into small parts.
Sometimes young people feel overwhelmed by tasks, especially those they’ve let go for a long time. A disastrous bedroom, twenty-three overdue math assignments, a long-term project that’s “suddenly” due in a few days (or hours!); all of these cause the preadolescent to choose to give up rather than get started.
If your child is in the midst of a longtime friendship that is falling apart, the best thing you can do is stand by and be a good listener.
It is devastating for us to see our children hurting, but taking sides or intervening is not appropriate, nor will it help. Preadolescents do survive these hurts, especially if they know we are there to listen to their pain.
Friends are people who accept us as we are.
They listen, they don’t needlessly criticize, they back us up when we’re right and pick us up when we’re down. Be a friend to your middle-schooler; some days kids feel you’re the only one they have.
If the issue is minor, keep things light.
The shoes on the floor, the wet towel on the bed, the carton left open; these are maddening, perhaps, but not earth-shattering. Call attention to them in a humorous way, so your middle-schooler knows you want action but you aren’t being punitive... “Either the cat’s smarter than I thought or you left the milk carton open on the counter. One of you please put it back before it spoils.”
Adapted from the National Middle School Association.