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The Parent's Role
How can parents understand the three-way relationship between parents, their child, and Old Dominion University ?
- Students should be kept in the middle of their college business. Include your student in conversations about academic and personal behavior.
- Old Dominion gives much responsibility to students about choices and tries to assist them in understanding positive and negative results.
- Old Dominion employees will assume your child is telling us the truth about class attendance, grades, behavior, and that they are communicating with their parents.
- Old Dominion assumes parents have taught their children about how to manage their finances and have agreed on the use of their finances and the use of credit cards.
- Old Dominion will provide opportunities for students to learn about living in a community.
- Parents should help their child become responsible by encouraging them to:
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- Take responsibility for decisions
- Get up on time to go to class
- Negotiate disputes with roommates
- Meet academic deadlines and seek out professors when problems exist
- Manage money by not accruing fines or spending on credit cards
Making the transition
- Encourage calls home as needed. Will you have a regular time to call or e-mail? Remember, a student's schedule is irregular.
- Ask if your child would like a subscription to your hometown paper or copies of the church bulletin, or just send them clippings. All students LOVE mail in their campus post office box.
- Let your student decide the frequency of visits home-they can feel guilty about not going home enough and also wanting to stay on campus to work on academics and be with friends.
- Students will be tired at breaks. Let them sleep. Expect that they will want to spend time with friends from home.
- Listen to your student, but help him or her take responsibility for their decisions.
- Agree on their responsibility for finances. Academics will be a full-time job. Students should not be expected to work more than 15-20 hours per week.
- Agree on their academics. Parents are encouraged to ask their students for their grades.
- Don't worry about their second thoughts about their college choice. The transition is difficult for most students. Listen.
- If your child's birthday occurs while he/she is at Old Dominion, you may order a cake through the Old Dominion Dining Services.
- Some parents may hear often about the struggles while others may hear most about the positives, but each student goes through highs and lows.
