Is Your College Student Back Home Due to the Coronavirus? 5 Tips to Ensure Their Happiness and Stability

Last week, during the middle of her Spring Break, my daughter got the email -- the one from her college telling her that she should stay home through April 3rd (and maybe longer). I saw the look of disappointment on her face -- she loves her classes, cherishes her friends, and looks forward to all the traditions at her college. However, she understood the importance of staying home and social distancing and we decided to make the best of the situation. Here are my tips for ensuring that your college student is happy and stable in terms of their ability to continue learning.

1. Provide Routine. Once my daughter's Spring Break was over, I told her, "I'm waking you up at 8 a.m. each day." I know, some of you might think I'm being too tough on her or that I should let her relax, but what I know is that a regular routine leads to more stability for most of us. So each morning, I come downstairs and make sure she's up to start her day; she is. We make breakfast together and plan out the day. She has her to-do list and I have mine. We do our work side-by-side most of the day and sometimes move to different rooms depending on if we have to take a call or participate in an online course or video conference. I make a point to ask her about her homework assignments and what is happening in her classes each day.
2. Exercise. Because we are social distancing -- which means we are staying at home -- I make sure that we stop for exercise. My daughter leads a squad practice for her fencing club at college so I asked her to make me her squad and we work out together. We both have a lot more energy after we work out and feel a lot happier due to the endorphins. The squats are killing me.
3. Encourage Engagement with Friends. I encourage my daughter to video chat in the evenings with her college friends as she really misses them. I've discovered that they watch movies simultaneously -- by saying 1, 2, 3, and then clicking play on Netflix. Then, they discuss the movies and laugh about things I don't understand. It makes me happy to hear her laughing with her friends.
4. Disconnect from Media. Although I keep her informed about the Coronavirus pandemic, I don't keep the news on in the house as I can only imagine what it is like to go through this at 20 years old, having never experienced something like this before. She is savvy and also keeps informed -- as do her friends -- but she knows when to disconnect. It makes me smile when her phone is laying on her bed and she is in the living room, ignoring it completely.
5. Encourage Balance. Although she has a lot of assignments to complete and online courses to participate in, I encourage her to do other things to relax and enjoy life during the day and at night. As a fines arts major, she loves to draw and I encourage it even if it's not for class. We have no idea what our children our really thinking during this difficult time and having outlets for expression of all kinds is essential to their mental health. Nothing brings me joy like watching my daughter create art just for her.

I believe that our children want to feel safe and loved during these difficult and uncertain times and as such, I'm going to act like a parent -- alright, truth be told, I always act like a parent as that is what I am. I make sure that my daughter is eating healthy food and we typically cook it together. I make sure that she has a variety of activities so that she knows it's fine to break away from her college work. And I talk with her about any and everything to ensure that I have a finger on the pulse of where she is and how she is feeling about what is happening in the world around us and about her world. I'm lucky as my daughter and I have a very close relationship. For those of you who might not be as close with your children, this is the perfect time to work on establishing a foundation that will outlast a pandemic and maybe last a lifetime. Oh, and by the way, I asked my daughter if I could write this essay.