High schools try therapy pets, 'recess,' no-homework nights to lower 'epidemic' student stress

[liberal_at_heart]

13. I'm certainly no helicopter parent

My autistic son who struggles in school still does his homework on his own. When he asks for help I help him. They pursue their own interests. My son joined the school wrestling team this year. He won a couple of matches but lost others. It made him feel good to win a match but didn't bother him to lose one. His team was very supportive. That is one way I think things have changed for the better. You don't have a bunch of macho PE coaches anymore yelling at the boys and making them feel inferior if they can't do a pull up. At least not in my son's school anyway. My daughter is an artist and is studying to become a veterinarian. She just turned 18 and we are affording her some more freedom. She gets to eat what she wants. She just opened her own checking account, and she went up to the bank all by herself and went through the process by herself. She is responsible for deciding if she is sick enough to stay home from school and responsible for making sure she doesn't miss more days than she is suppose to. She has to set up her own doctor's appointments. But when she asks for help I am right there for her. I think she has great confidence that as she goes out into that big, scary world that she can go out there and learn to be independent but that there will always be someone there for her when she needs help.