Tips to Enjoying Senior Year
Senior year of high school has arrived for our sweet Carly Jo and I’m just so stinkin’ excited for her. While I’ve always been a fairly involved mom, I also give my kids lots of space to grow. After losing some major milestones during Dillon’s senior year due to being a 2020 grad, I no longer take the little things for granted. You can bet I’m gonna be at all the things this year but am still going to work on giving her the space she needs to continue growing into the person she needs to be to take her next independent steps. Here are my thoughts on a few tips to enjoying senior year!
Attend all the things! Carly is on the drill team and it is a year long committment from football seaon in the fall to competition season in the spring and I plan to be on the sidelines cheering her on every chance I get! At Thanksgiving we will be headed to NYC for her to march/dance in the Macys Thanksgiving parade and we cannot wait. There will be dances and banquets and other celebrations and I am excited for it all.
Encourage independence! Carly has been 18 since she was 2 so being independent comes natural to her. One thing we embraced with all of our kids during senior year was dropping the curfew and allowing them to start making good decisions on their nights out. She will actually turn 18 at the beginning of the school year and we live in a college town which means she will also be able to go hang out with her siblings or friends at some of the bars in town. Letting her test her decision making while she’s still under my roof will give me a lot more confidence she can handle herself when she leaves home. While she is really good with budgeting her time, I’d like to spend a little more energy teaching her to be equally as good at budgeting her checking account.
Listen more and talk less. I should make this a rule with all of my kids all the time, but I really want to take the time to just listen this year. When she is ready to spill the beans on what’s going on in her life, I want show genuine interest in her experiences, listen attentively, and be available for guidance and support whenever she needs it.
Plan some one on one time together. It definitely feels like Carly Jo has been my little buddy longer than any of the rest and I know I’m going to miss just being able to run errands and shop around town on a lazy Saturday with her. I want to be intentional this year in setting time aside for just the two of us. I love that we are part of a mother/daughter volunteering group and our goal is to volunteer at least once a month. Taking a weekend or two away to visit a few of the colleges she is applying to is also on our list. Even if we just start planning a weekly Sonic run, I want our time together to be meaningful.
Take all the pictures! I’ve never been shy about taking hundreds of pictures but being the 4th child, there are not many organized into any sort of scrapbook. I hope this year I can actually manage to coral some of my favorites into a special book for her. A special note for moms, actually hand off your camera and get in the pictures!! You will thank yourself for years to come that you did.
Plan a senior trip! It was my dream to wrap up her senior year with one last hoorah with a full family vacation. Her dream looks a little different! She would rather go to Greece. I mean can you blame her? I’m not sure I can pull off Greece but we will definitely plan a trip to getaway and celebrate her before she heads off on her new adventure.
Mostly, I don’t plan to be sad that this time of having her under my wing is ending. I’ve spent 18 years preparing her for the next stage of her life and I feel like she is almost ready to fly. The excitement I feel when I think about her continuing to grow and explore the plans God has for her it warms my heart.