‘Don’t pressure your children to get into a good college’, says Harvard expert

Parenting behavior expert and author Jennifer Breheny Wallace, who works at Harvard University, has warned about a “common” problem in families.

According to Jennifer, the habit that many mothers and fathers have of pressuring their children to get into a good college may be destroying young people's mental health.

All over the world, and not just in the United States or Brazil, from an early age, children are driven to to strive to get a place in a good higher education course, as if this were the guarantee of a life of success.

For Jennifer Breheny Wallace, parents should abandon this concept. “The first thing we need to do is get out of our heads that there is a ‘good’ college,” she said, in an interview with CNBC.

The author of the book “Never Enough: When the Pressure of Achievement Becomes Toxic – and What We Can Do About It”, Jennifer states that, together with her husband, she let go of the myth that going to college is the secret to success.

(Image: Freepik/reproduction)

Explaining reality in a loving way is the key

During her interview with CNBC, Jennifer Breheny Wallace highlights that parents should indeed talk about college with their children. However, this must be done in a light and broad way.

According to her, pressure should be eliminated from speeches, as examples can be given.

“We all know people who went to great colleges but whose lives didn't turn out as well as they had hoped,” she begins.

“On the other hand, we all have examples of individuals who went to unknown colleges or even attended higher education, whose lives ended up being extraordinary”, she concludes.

Finally, Wallace highlights that, in addition to the soft tone, parents should talk less about college with their children. In her view, one hour a week is enough.

Advice from parental relationship experts, such as Jennifer Breheny Wallace, is valuable in this day and age, when everything seems to contribute to upheavals in the mental health of people.

Graduated in History and Human Resources Technology. Passionate about writing, today he lives the dream of working professionally as a Web Content Writer, writing articles in several different niches and formats.