Stress in overachieving teens. How to help your child to reduce it?

Overachievement is one such word nowadays, or one such characteristic that can be controversial, and one does not understand whether it is an excellent trait to have or not. A person is termed an overachiever when they perform much better than expected and achieve success in less time. By the meaning, it would sound like a good trait, but the person who is an overachiever may go through stress because of this trait. Overachievement is seen a lot in teenage kids. This may be because of peer pressure and expectations from teachers and parents or the feeling of being the best from everybody else. Generally, teens who are overachievers set high goals and sometimes may seem unrealistic as well. These kinds of teenagers may go through a lot of stress because they have this drive to attain all their goals. Stress is good for no one, leave alone teenagers.

If you are a parent of an overachieving teen and are worried because your teen takes a lot of stress, you can help them reduce it. Here are some ways –

1. As a parent, you need to reduce your stress about your kid and keep your expectations to yourself. One of the reasons why your kid is so stressed to reach the goal is to stand up to your expectations. Every parent has their expectations from their kids, but imposing those expectations can bring your kid under a lot of pressure leading to stress.
2. You can teach your kid-specific life lessons such as how to manage time. Teach your kids that your time management and scheduling ease the process and will eventually reduce their stress as well. Your kid may be stressed because they cannot enjoy their life because of the high goals they have set. Tell your kids that they also need to enjoy their life with achieving success. Time management and scheduling can help your teen to balance their life.
3. Do not discuss other students or compare them to somebody else. Refrain from completing with some other students or teens. Because this is one of the reasons your students keep overachieving, do not doubt their capabilities. Just support them and tell them you will love them even if they achieve a little less.
4. If your teen themselves cannot schedule family time or their me-time, you can do it for them. You can play with them or spend time with them by binge-watching or just forcing them to take time from their study life. As a parent, you need to spend some time leisure time with your kid.
5. A piece of answer sheet cannot decide your child’s future. As a parent in past, you may have emphasized your teen’s grade or on grades that other students acquire. This might lead your kid to be stressed about achieving higher grades. You need to stop putting all the attention into study and grades.
6. Have some relaxing time with your kid. The most favorable ones can be meditation and yoga. With such practices, they get alone time plus they have a relaxing time, which calms their minds and relieves them from all the stress.
7. Your teens must know not to cross boundaries just because they want to achieve certain goals. For example, your overachiever teen sets a goal related to their physical strength. To achieve this goal, they might exhaust their body to a level that can deplete their health. You need to make your teen understand that failure is not a bad thing and that failure teaches us a lot of lessons. With this, your teen will know where to set boundaries that will not exhaust their physical or mental strength.

These were some of the tips which you can use to reduce your overachiever teens stress.

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