SUNDAY 25 AUGUST 2019LESSONS FOR LIFE
Preparing your child for university? Margaret Dwyer reveals tips that
can make a tough transition that bit easier
Negotiating life’s terrain can be tricky for young people (iStock)
The Facebook posts have begun to appear, as they do every summer, of parents getting ready to send kids
off to university for the first time. The posts brim with nostalgia, accompanied by pictures of nursery
events, primary school science fairs and secondary school dances, all starring the newly minted adult who
will be leaving in a few short weeks. The theme is the difficulty parents have in letting go of children who
are children no more.
I don’t join in the nostalgia, because as parents are letting go of their university-bound children, I am
awaiting them in their new role as adult university undergraduates. I teach primarily undergraduate courses
at a small university. The weeks before the beginning of the autumn term are also ones of reckoning for me,