CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR GRADUATING SENIORS

Congratulations to all our graduating seniors. We thank, Sarah, Noah and Cire who did HCPSS internships at NFRC and were trained as peer counselors. All three seniors will be going on to college. We wish them the best and thank them again for their talented work in helping to facilitate our teen group and KidsConnex. We also congratulate seniors Vaughn and Jean-Pierre and our Towson University intern, Jasmine Evans.

This is an exciting time of year for graduating seniors. As seniors “move up,” we recommend the following to parents to “move up” with love and support for their children. While experiencing a family transition places great stress on each family member, graduation is the senior’s time to get positive attention, unconditional love and support for all of his or her achievements.

We recently spoke with graduating seniors and asked them what they would recommend to parents and friends at this time and what they need for themselves:

• Be understanding that it is a challenging year.

• Provide unyielding support.

• Let your daughter/son know that you’re always proud.

• Remember that your child is a part of each of you; there is plenty of space to celebrate what each of you has given. Don’t bad mouth each other. Don’t raise your voices, roll your eyes or complain about each other.

• Don’t make your child choose which post graduation party to go to. If you can’t speak to each other and attend the same celebration, at least inform each other and choose different times for each celebration.

• When graduation is over, find time to sit down with your son/daughter and talk about surviving on their own, from doing laundry, managing finances, studying, making and keeping friends and cooking.

• Know most of all that your child needs your love and thanks you for helping her/him.

— Risa Garon