This is the second story in a series discussing the pressure placed on students to succeed
Almost every kid in America has experienced their dad or mom trying to explain math over the kitchen table. This usually resulted in lots of tears and upsetness due to your parents getting upset you forgot how to do multiplication and division.
Parents supplying high schoolers with endless amounts of high standards has been happening for years. Although many of these parents aren’t aware that their ideals and pressure put on good grades are negatively affecting their kids. Kids show higher levels of anxiety, stress, and depression when their home life is filled with even more pressure about their school success.
After talking with numerous Littleton students I noticed that it is pervasive for parents of teens to act as added stress.
An anonymous Littleton student said “I love my parents but sometimes their constant nagging at me to keep my grades up and making it seem like a single B will result in total failure adds to my daily stress levels. Their high expectations give me anxiety about school and make taking tests and receiving big grades something I dread.”
This is not the only person that has experienced this phenomenon. Another anonymous student said “Sometimes school is less fun due to the fact I’m afraid one bad grade will dictate how my parents see me.”
It has been more public knowledge to parents that while supporting their kids in succeeding in school there is a way to do so without causing detrimental problems in their life.
I asked the students about some ways that their parents could provide support for them without being too overbearing and causing too much pressure. There were a lot of different responses but the most common was that parents shouldn’t get upset about a single grade.
Students agreed that sometimes it’s ok to not do well on one test or sometimes you aren’t gonna understand a subject and need extra help. They collectively agreed that lingering too much on a single grade is detrimental to their relationship with their parents and that it can be an easy fix in all families.
In this day and age school is stressful enough without the added weight of parents being overbearing about grades. It’s good to find a middle ground so that your parent can still stay involved and keep you on track for good grades. They aren’t necessarily adding more anxiety to your schoolwork.
