The time many parents dread is approaching- graduation. When your child has reached the final days of high school, parents begin to panic.

Those of you planning big parties and events are busy remodeling, cleaning, and doing things you normally do not consider important for casual entertaining. With all the fuss and preparation, you barely have time to think about what this great day means, between ordering the cake and sending out invitations.

Your kids have varied ideas of the significance of graduation depending on their future plans and whether or not their school days were happy ones. The college- heading student will look at graduation as the end of being a silly high schooler and expect instantaneous maturity as they head out for college. The summer after graduation is for fun and rest between school years. The student who really hated school is sighing with relief at the prospect of freedom, a term they really don't understand in view of the necessary 'servitude' imposed on a person by a daily job. They are planning on 'cutting loose' and living the ultimate endless summer. Both these students will be helped by a few words of advice aimed at bringing their lives back to reality. The college-bound student must realize it will take time to mature and they won't know all the answers to being an adult. Heck, I still don't know them. Your fun lovin' summertime king must be assured with the fall must come their employment.

Get your teens ready for graduation by teaching them life skills and by preparing them mentally for the eventual move both literally and emotionally away from family. The independence and ability to survive on their own is an accumulation of all those instances where you helped them gain responsibility, individuality, and a sense of belonging to the world.

Parents will worry over the fact that most graduating teens attend parties where alcohol is served. We once again must remember that you did what you can do. You taught those kids responsible behavior. You showed them how detrimental a lack of integrity and character can be to their lives. You have prayed for them and hopefully with them. You may want to once more have a heart- to -heart with teens about how much you care about them and how devastated you would be if something happened to them. It is never too late to state your opinions and to tell teens you love them. But, for the most part, your job is done. All we can do is to hope they remember what you have taught them and pray for their safety.

Congratulate yourself on the fact that you raised your children to adulthood. You did the best you could do; now it is up to them.

Credits: Jo Ann Wentzel