How to Reconnect with Your Family While You’re Home on Break

When you’re away from university, it’s common to feel homesick and look forward to being back with your family for the holidays. However, it’s also common for all the old conflicts to surface almost as soon as you set foot in your family home. Plus, your parents and any younger siblings will now have routines that don’t involve you — and the last thing you want is for your presence to feel disruptive. To make your stay at home an enjoyable one, take the following steps to reconnect with your family.

1. Fit Around Them

While your family members will be happy that you’re home, you can’t expect them to change their schedules to suit you. All this time at university has taught you plenty about being independent — apply it now to staying in your family home.

2. Follow Your Parents’ Rules

Of course, there will be limits to your independence at home. You may have almost complete freedom while at university, but you need to follow your parents’ rules when you’re back under their roof. These rules could include how late you can stay out, who you can invite over, and what chores you need to do. This may be a difficult transition at first, but it will ultimately mean that your stay is much more enjoyable for everyone involved.

3. Spend Time with Your Family

It’s easy for the holidays to pass only for you to realize that you’ve spent almost no time with your family. You’ll want to see all the friends who went to different universities, and there’ll be plenty of events keeping your family busy. However, you’ll miss out on a great opportunity to reconnect if you fail to schedule time to do things with your parents and siblings. Make sure you dedicate at least a couple days for quality time together.

4. Find Ways to Get Involved

After the initial excitement of seeing everyone (and once you’ve caught up on some well-needed rest), you may find yourself getting bored at home. Your parents will definitely appreciate it if you volunteer to help out around the house and with other tasks. Perhaps you could run to the store for last-minute holiday supplies, pick up a young sibling who’s too young to drive, or put your skills toward some home repairs.

5. Talk About Your Goals for the Future

Your goals may have changed dramatically since you left for university, especially if your classes revealed opportunities you never knew existed or you discovered a new passion through an elective or extracurricular. Your parents are some of the best people to discuss your long-term goals with, since they know you well and have life experience. You may be able to ask them for advice about what to do next, to check your resume, or to introduce you to contacts within the field you want to enter.

Since you live in your family home for only a fraction of the year when you’re at university, it’s extra important to have a place you can call home for the rest of the time. For off-campus University of Waterloo residence, you’ll find everything you need at MyRez. Feel at home with a private bedroom, onsite grocery market, and fast WiFi throughout the building. Book a video tour to check it out.