{"id":326,"date":"2018-08-04T22:17:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-04T22:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ec2-50-17-66-55.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/2018\/08\/04\/handling-stress-in-middle-school-how-much-pressure-should-you-put-on-your-kids\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T03:22:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T11:22:52","slug":"middle-school-stress-tips-for-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/mental-health-and-well-being\/middle-school-stress-tips-for-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"Handling Stress in Middle School: How much pressure should you put on your kids?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A mom chats about monitoring parental pressure<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Interview with Mollishree Sawhney<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When children in middle school start to pull away from their parents\u2019 constant supervision, it is a natural response for parents to give their students more incentive to perform well in school. Parents often reward students for good grades or dictate which activities they should join. However, this is a balancing act. Parents should motivate their kids to care about their education without allowing academic pressure to have negative effects on the students\u2019 well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Mollishree Sawhney, mother of an incoming 6th grader, remarks, \u201cI try not to put any pressure on him to commit to an activity. As he gets older, he\u2019ll face plenty of challenges growing up, so adding extra pressure from me, as a parent, will not help anything.\u201d We spoke with Mollishree about her plan to guide her son through 6th grade and her expectations for the coming year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CI: What are your greatest concerns about your child entering middle school?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MS: There is no more safety net in Middle School. My son has been most worried about the amount of homework in 6th grade. His older friends have told him that he\u2019ll have 3 hours of homework a night and that\u2019s really scaring him. For my husband and me, we want him to feel like he can come to us with his own questions and concerns. We don\u2019t want him asking his friends about serious topics. We want to have his trust so he talks to us and gets the real facts about questions he has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CI: What are you most excited for about your child entering middle school?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MS: <\/strong>I\u2019m excited for him to take on new responsibilities. He\u2019s excited to make new friends at a new school. It\u2019s a new slate because he\u2019s going to a different middle school than the one associated with his elementary school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CI: In what ways do you think your child will change and grow as they start 6th grade? How are you planning on guiding them through their journey?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MS: MS: I like to give my son a good amount of independence. Since 5th grade, every day, I\u2019ve just asked \u2018Do you have homework?\u2019 and \u2018Have you finished it?\u2019 with the trust that he is doing the work. This has been good training for middle school, and now I know he is responsible for doing the homework on his own in 6th grade. And if I get a report by the end of the week that he didn\u2019t turn something in or if something was late, then I step in with consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CI: Remembering back to your own middle school experience, did you feel that you were given more freedom in 6th grade? Do you feel that you would want to give your child that same amount of freedom?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MS: I feel that kids in America have more freedom than kids in India. But, with freedom comes responsibility. My son has all the freedom he wants until he abuses that freedom, then there are consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CI: Do you anticipate your child starting a new activity or hobby as they start middle school? Do you feel like they should be challenged as they start this new chapter of their life?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MS: I don\u2019t want him to start any new activities, at least in 6th grade, because there\u2019s already so much change and learning happening that adding an extra challenge won\u2019t benefit him. I try not to put any pressure on him to commit to an activity.  As he gets older, he\u2019ll face plenty of challenges growing up, so adding extra pressure from me, as a parent, will not help anything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mom chats about monitoring parental pressure Interview with Mollishree Sawhney When children in middle school start to pull away from their parents\u2019 constant supervision, it is a natural response for parents to give their students more incentive to perform well in school. Parents often reward students for good grades […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[30,31],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mental-health-and-well-being","tag-middle-school","tag-parenting"],"yoast_head":"\nMiddle School Stress: Tips for Parents on Healthy Pressure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how to help your middle schooler manage stress without too much pressure. 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