A Christian Perspective on Maintaining Family Relationships in College

Pick it Up: 

One of the hardest things about coming to college is having to leave your family and your home behind. You have a new sense of independence, which is really exciting but also really scary. It’s exciting because you get to figure out who you are and who you want to be. It’s scary because you have less guidance and can make some mistakes.

As you’re growing in independence, it can be easy to accidentally neglect relationships with your family. We’ve all heard the quote “out of sight, out of mind” and unfortunately, that can happen easily while in college. It’s so important to stay in good contact with your family and to love on them, even when you aren’t living in the same house anymore. It’s also important to have healthy boundaries with your family. As you gain independence, you have to learn how to be independent and figure things out on your own. You have to find a good balance of both independence and maintaining those relationships!

& Preach: 

How do you practically do all of these things?

• Maintaining Relationships
  • Set up a weekly phone call/facetime
    • Talk about what God’s doing in your lives
    • Share highs and lows of the week
    • Pray together
  • Send pictures and updates weekly on what you’re doing in your day to day
  • Go home and visit monthly or bi-monthly
    • Be present when you are home. Your parents are excited to see you, actually spend quality time with them!
  • Allow them into hard parts of your life
    • Be vulnerable about some of the things that you’re going through. Your parents care and want to help you!
      • As Christians, we are called to honor our parents and that comes by loving and respecting them and their opinions (you can disagree with your parents while still honoring them)
• Learning Independence
  • Learn to make decisions without your parents input (depending on how large of a decision of course)
  • Don’t go home every weekend
    • It’s hard to gain independence when you don’t allow yourself to build a life at your school
  • If it’s getting very unhealthy where your parents are extremely controlling, have a conversation with them to figure out healthier boundaries so your relationship doesn’t continue to cause hurt

If you’re interested in more tips or advice, check out our podcast on this topic!

Podcast: 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3WcELeqmjYcpKcoVGMsqrw

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/home-away-from-home-a-christian-perspective-on/id1778314831?i=1000680871786