Imagine this, you are a freshman in college, and after finally adapting to living away from home and being on your own, you are now about to start your second semester with all of your new friends that you have now developed close relationships with the semester before. You can’t wait for all of the fun experiences you are about to have together.
And then you’re forced to move back home with your parents. Away from all of your new friendships and losing your first college experience to a pandemic that has forced the world to go strictly digital.
College is an extremely important developmental stage in one’s life. It is the first taste of freedom you get away from home where you can make your own decisions. On top of that, you make lifetime friendships with people who you grow used to living down the hall from. People wait years for that first college experience that they’ve heard about from their older siblings and other older figures in their life.
Some of the most important aspects of forming friendships are the times when you’re all just hanging out on the couch or in your room, and these moments are no longer possible during this major milestone in life.
That experience has now been ripped out from under these newcomers to freedom due to a pandemic that has now forced them to regress back into their home life. Not only do they have to move back home, they can’t leave the house!
Suddenly, now that you get your taste of freedom and are just starting to think “I never wanna go back home!”, you’re back home. Back to the rules of your parents and the nagging of your chores and getting your homework done.
This experience can be detrimental to these teens’ lives. At this point in time, friends and socializing are everything to this age group.
This article states, “Adolescence is often highlighted as being a phase of development during which there is particular tension between the struggle for autonomy and the strong attachment that teens have to their parents.”
This is already a time where these teens are struggling to detach themselves from their home life and their parents, and now they are being forced to remain in a developmental stage that they are supposed to be growing out of.
Psychology says that the need to be cared for and attached to your parents becomes less present as you mature. This is because adolescents feel that they can provide for their own needs without the physical presence of their parents or other caregivers, because they are now old enough to be able to interact with their environment on their own.
This helps explain why so many college students who have been forced to live back home with their parents, who they are supposed to be growing away from, are feeling resentment and struggling with this frustrating time in their life.
Because of this, it is important that people stay as connected as possible to their friends and try to not let this pandemic keep you from creating memories with your newly developed friendships. And hopefully you’ll be able to try and set some boundaries with your parents.
