Wednesday, June 3, 2015

What are your demands?

As a young teen, I once asked my Mom if I could get an after-school job. Her reply was: "Your job is to be a good student." So I tried my best to do a good job and balance my school work with all the other chores I did around the house.

I liked knowing that my Mother valued academic achievement, and she made it my primary focus. I also like that she never became overly demanding or involved in my schoolwork to put more pressure on me than I had already put on myself to excel. (Thanks, Mom!)

And that balance around schooling is what all parents should strive for, according to a study by Wayne State University. Researchers asked questions of teenagers and their parents to determine how parental pressure affects academic success. Interestingly, they found that parents of teenagers who were older than 50 were the least demanding group when it came to emphasizing academic achievement. Parents in that group tended to focus on the process of learning instead of academic skills.

Overall, the researchers found that some demands were necessary to provide teens the support they need for academic success, but that parents needed to be aware if their child did not work well under pressure.

So, I think for me, I'll be borrowing a page from my Mom's parenting handbook and make sure my son knows that school is important and it is his primary focus, but that as long as he is doing his best, I'm proud of him.

Did you have a job while you were in high school? What was it? Tell me in the comments.

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