It’s an exciting moment when your child heads to university of college for the first time. There are many options regarding how they do it, of course. Many choose to head to the campus and live in dorms for the first year, but if you live near to the institution, they may just live at home and drive into their lectures. As they grow, they may also rent a private house with their friends and attend their courses, which is common for more mature students, perhaps in their third year.
If your child is renting privately or living with others for the first time, it’s important for some realities to be managed ahead of time. In this post, we’ll discuss some advice you can give them, in case they experience any of the following difficulties:
Routine Setting & Cleaning
It doesn’t take long for a shared house to start falling apart if no one takes any responsibility. Everyone starts quietly hoping someone else will deal with it, be that a dirty pile up of the dishes or perhaps an oven that’s way overdue for cleaning.
A quick chat about getting some kind of simple routine in place can help them have the confidence to open this conversation up in the house. You can put a shared rota in place, such as deciding who’s vacuuming when or who’s meant to do the dishes that week. If they’re living with others, a reminder or even just agreeing to talk about it if things start slipping will usually help. If it’s bad, then using a service like Spruce Goose cleaning and mutually paying for it could get htem start.
Noise Issues & Partying
It’s normal for students to want to celebrate, have friends over, play music, and stay up late. That much your child likely knows anyway, and odds are, they get involved it int as well. But that can get annoying fast if no one knows when to call the party over or when this happens constantly during study season.
Now, a bit of noise now and then isn’t the end of the world, but if they’re losing sleep or falling behind, it becomes a real issue, and they shouldn’t have to feel like they can only go to the local library to get work done. They should feel okay speaking up if something’s bothering them, being the mediator to discuss when study periods need to be put in place.
Rental & Bill Arrangement
Money’s the one topic that remains awkward to talk about even in dulthood, but it matters more than almost anything else. That’s especially true if one person is handling the bills. If the rent’s paid late or a bill gets missed, it affects everyone, and so it’s important to be very clear about when payments are to be made and how to document them, such as in a shared cloud note or calendar. They should know how the payment side is going to work from the beginning. It’s also a good idea to keep proof of anything they’ve paid, just in case. If you have to help them put this in place thanks to your experience, it’s not a bad idea.
With this advice, we hope you can cope with the effort of renting privately for university, and the various admin efforts that will take.
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