Actions have consequences, always. This concept, however, can be hard for a college freshman to learn before arriving at college. Even if you tried to emphasize this concept through your parenting choices, your child may still not have grasped this concept.

Attending college during a pandemic requires more of your freshman than past first year college students. Your child’s responsibilities reach far beyond the classroom. Helping with tuition bills, monitoring their own health, and reaching out for help have all new levels of meaning during COVID-19.

Parent, if you have worries about your freshman developing needed adult skills, know that COVID-19 can help your child ease into adulthood. Below are 3 ways the pandemic helps your freshman act responsibly!

COVID-19 emphasizes the importance of being healthy.

Eating well, getting adequate sleep, and exercising are critical now more than ever. Your child’s college is likely encouraging these healthy habits more this semester than in semesters past. Hopefully, the importance of being healthy is sinking in.

College life can make consistent eating difficult. With early morning classes and late night’s studying, your freshman can quickly throw the idea of breakfast out the window. If they have to choose between getting 15 minutes more sleep or grabbing something to eat, they’ll likely choose sleep.

With COVID-19, it is essential that your freshman prioritizes getting adequate nutrition. As the semester continues, your freshman will start to see the importance of consistent eating of healthy foods.

College life can also be exhausting. With hours of homework, work shifts, and more, your freshman may feel like they have no time for exercising and few hours to get sleep each night. Without good sleep and consistent exercise, however, your freshman will be fatigued and lack energy to tackle an already difficult semester.

The reality of COVID-19, however, helps to encourage your freshman to protect their sleep and exercise. Without these important practices, your freshman’s immune system will falter and make them more susceptible to the virus.

Taking responsibility for their health during this time is critical if your freshman wants to avoid getting ill and if your freshman wants to have in-person instruction (or the possibility of in-person instruction next semester).

COVID-19 emphasizes the importance of thinking of others.

Thinking about others in the past was merely a considerate thing to do, a way to be polite. In the days of the pandemic, thinking about others is much more than a nicety. It is essential, a matter of life or death for some.

Your freshman’s choices can have a profound impact on those around them. If your freshman chooses not to attend a party, this choice impacts their classmates and their instructor. If your freshman chooses to wear a mask in a grocery store, this choice impacts roommates and more.

COVID-19 highlights the reality that each choice your freshman makes has an impact on others. Though actions always impact self and others, now your freshman sees how their actions not only impact them but others as well.

COVID-19 also highlights the reality that each choice your freshman makes has a consequence. Every choice has a consequence for good or for evil, but the pandemic makes the stakes much higher. Your freshman can see a direct relationship between how they act and what results.

COVID-19 emphasizes the importance of taking ownership of actions.

If your freshman chose to attend college during this pandemic, they have to own it. If your freshman’s college is solely online, they’ve had to own it. If your freshman’s college is attempting in-person education, they’ve had to own it.

With restrictions on socializing, dorm living, cafeteria spacing, and more—your freshman has had to accept all of the weirdness of college during COVID-19. Giving up would be understanding. Staying home an extra semester or school year would also be understanding, but your child chose to come to college now.

With classroom requirements of face-masks and social distancing, your freshman has had to adapt to unusual college instruction. Even though this is your child’s first experience of college, they’ve had to adjust to an abnormal normal. Your freshman has to choose to embrace it in all its oddities.

Taking ownership of college starts with acting responsibly. Your freshman is learning to act responsibly, and COVID-19 is accelerating this process. Let this time grow your freshman into the adult you know they can be.