Finding a balance between the demands of school and the joys of family life can be a delicate challenge, but with the right strategies students and parents can overcome and delve successfully into this difficult task. 

Balancing a student’s dual responsibilities can be challenging without proper organization. A neatly arranged calendar is a helpful guide for students, as it works as a tool to lead them through school assignments and family commitments. When students carefully and successfully create a schedule for their study sessions, project timelines, and family events, it not only boosts their effectiveness but also lets them set aside specific times for specific events. 

“I manage my time by planning things out in an online planner. It’s usually better to have my things planned from most important to least important, but I always save time for my family apart from schoolwork,” Trinidad Dominguez, grade 11, said. 

Growing up in a technological era plays a significant role in improving the efficiency of managing both academic and familial responsibilities. The digital tools that students use like virtual calendars can offer a practical solution for students who are seeking balance between the demands of school and family life. Embracing the technological advancements that our generation has created, can create a new method of balancing the challenges that students have between academic and family responsibilities. 

“I believe that planning your time is very effective, planning out your week has proven to be very effective for me, I either wrote it down on my phone or my notebook, and it has proven to be quite handy for me” Juanita Martinez, grade 11, Said

Furthermore, efficient communication between parents, friends, and teachers can be a solution to having a balance between school and family responsibilities. The key to having a good balance between school and family is good communication, this helps prevent misunderstandings, reduce stress, and enable the creation of a supportive environment where both academic and family responsibilities can peacefully coexist. By maintaining open lines of communication, students can have a positive balance between academic and familial responsibilities which in return creates a pleasing atmosphere where both aspects can seamlessly coexist and thrive.

“Communication is everything, as I mentioned previously, communicating and processing key aspects for a child, to communicate with their parents they must learn how to communicate with themselves and how to manage emotions, and that is why a parent needs to provide that id for their children” Martinez said 

The arrival of COVID-19 brought significant adjustments for students, requiring them to transition to virtual learning while sharing their living space with family members. For some students, managing both school and family within the same environment proved to be challenging, while others expressed that it was a positive experience and desired to continue with virtual schooling. The need to balance academic responsibilities and family life can be seen as the challenge of navigating two distinct aspects of a student’s life concurrently, presenting the demanding task of controlling these separate spheres in a shared environment.

 “Covid made it harder to balance my schedule between family and School because since I was having School online my family business and my school business kind of intertwined together. I think that Covid made me closer to my family but it somehow facilitated my school scheduling since things were more immediate instead of long-term. I didn’t have to come to school or go to lunch or spend eight hours in school instead, I had classes at certain periods that I had to go into and the time that I had left, I could do other activities like go eat with my family.” Dominguez, Said.

In summary, maintaining a healthy balance between academic commitments and family responsibilities is essential for students to enhance their overall well-being.

“I would tell them to relax and de-stress because your family will understand that you have school obligations, and your school will understand that you have family obligations, and the best thing in the situations when you feel stressed is to just relax, pause and re-evaluate,” Dominguez said.