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Mentor Advice

Question

What can parents do to ease the experience of having their son/daughter studying abroad?

1 Replies from Mentors

  • mentor picture Rae Rae
     
    Rae Rae
    Senior Year Student
    Loyola Marymount University
    I would recommend that you set up a system of frequent and scheduled communication with your...
    I would recommend that you set up a system of frequent and scheduled communication with your child. It shouldn’t be too often, because you need to give your son or daughter the opportunity to absorb the culture. I spoke with my mom once a week on the phone and that worked fine. Also, writing letters and postcards to each other is wonderful, or you could even send care packages to your child! It may seem a bit cheesy, but they’ll really appreciate it after being away from their family for so long. No matter what, I think it’s important to strike a good balance between contact and letting your child experience new things and grow on their own. It also can be expensive to make international phone calls so I recommend using a prepaid phone card or downloading a free service like Skype, which enables you to make calls using a computer hooked up to the internet without charge. Of course, you can always use e-mail or instant messaging which are free. If you can afford to do so, why not save up money and use your vacation time to visit your child for a week as well? Many parents did this during my time abroad and it was a wonderful experience for both the child and the parent.