For most of us, college is right around the corner. We need to prepare as much as we can. In all of this chaos, we need to ask ourselves, “Are my parents the reason for all of my stress and confusion?”

The answer, surprisingly, is yes. Whether it be through a legacy program or increasingly high expectations, our parents influence our college process a ton.

Ava Berenato agreed that there is a lot stress about college, but not nearly as much as from her mom and dad. “Their stress about school is then dumped on to me and sometimes I don’t know how to handle it,” she said.

Ava spoke up about her stress, but many students don’t. This is a common problem among the youth of today. We don’t speak up about our issues until it is too late and by that time we have only dug a hole for ourselves to climb out of.

Junior Michael Carrington said he used to worry about school by himself, but when his parents began to get into his business about school, He almost lost it. “They were on me about homework, tests, quizzes,” he said. “I had hit a boiling point.”

Antonio Dicolandrea has similar experiences. “Grades are big and sports are secondary,” he said. “If I can get into school with sports that’s great but grades are what really sticks out to my family. If I’m failing in school that means no sports, so bad grades means I’m really hurting myself.” He added, “I think that if my parents backed off a little and let me do my thing my own way without such heavy guidance, I’d be a lot more relaxed and would perform better in both grades and in soccer”.

A message to all parents out there -slow down. Let kids be kids and let college wait for a little while. Parents who worry about college are not helping their kids, they are only adding to the pressure. A stress free home life will benefit your child.