It is no secret that in high school the pressure is on to do well. These expectations can come from our environment or ourselves. Yet, for many students, the cause of their stress comes from their biggest supporters: parents.
Parents want to push their children to do well so they’re able to achieve their dreams, what’s often overlooked is the emotional toll it can have on the kids.
Parents have different expectations for their children, depending on what they want them to achieve, some of these hopes can be almost unreachable.
In some cases parental pressure may create stress, but in others it can be a powerful source of motivation.
Freshman Zhibin Yang’s parents have pressured him in school a lot, but that pressure is what drives him to do well.
“Nowadays I pressure myself without having my parents take action,” Yang said.
While academic success is important when planning for a student’s future, it is equally important to have healthy coping mechanisms. These mechanisms are needed to manage everyday stress.
An article by Very Well Family states that too much pressure from parents and unmanaged stress can lead to sleep deprivation, a negative impact on self esteem, and to more serious mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression.
Freshman Raymond “Marc” Stoufer III has seen both the positive and negative effects from the parental pressure.
“The only real punishment I ever feel from my parents is the stress I feel to sustain good grades,” Stoufer said.
Everytime Stoufer gets a bad grade his parents make sure he is aware of how it will affect his future. To Stoufer’s parents that bad grade means that he is not putting forth enough effort, which will not help him in college or when he gets a job. These high standards cause large amounts of pressure in his life.
Academic standards students are held to and hold themselves to shouldn’t be more than they can handle.
Sophomore Erin Waldron sometimes feels that there is the expectation for her to do as well as her mother in school but, the reality is that her parents just want her to do her best.
“There needs to be a happy medium when it comes to parents pressuring their children,” Waldron said.
It’s important to remember that a bad grade does not define the student. It’s most important to learn from that bad grade, and do better next time.
At the end of the day, all a student can do is their best
