Healthy Relationship Resources

The month of February is most commonly known as the month of love! At Florida State, some great conversations are happening on campus centering  around what it means to show love and have a healthy relationship. 

Relationships are an important part of everyone’s life. They can take make many forms including family relationships, friendships, and romantic relationships. All relationships take work to build, maintain, and manage. We encourage you to discuss the importance of healthy relationships and boundaries with your student as they navigate forming and managing new and old relationships. We have included some tips to share below:

• Keep expectations realistic. Healthy relationships mean accepting people as they are and not trying to change them. Encourage your student to be open about their intentions and expectations with their friends, roommates, and potential partners. Talking about these topics in the beginning, helps prevent issues as the relationships grow. 
• Communicate often. It can’t be said enough: communication is essential in healthy relationships! It means taking the time to be present, to genuinely listen, to ask questions, and to share information and feelings. 
• Find balance. Sometimes it can be easy to get wrapped up into a new relationship and lose yourself in someone else. It is important for your student to find a balance, take care of themselves, and enjoy alone time.
• Set boundaries. It is important to be honest about your capacity and what you can handle. College brings with it a lot of competing priorities--classes, involvement, studying, jobs, and more. Relationships sometimes interfere with responsibilities and your student might find themselves experiencing FOMO or the fear of missing out. Setting some boundaries can help your student stay on the right track and also invest in their budding relationships. 
• Be yourself. It’s much easier and much more fun to be you than to pretend to be something or someone else. Sooner or later, it catches up anyway. Healthy relationships are made of real people, not images!
• Know when a relationship is no longer serving you. As with many situations, there may come a time when you must end the relationship. This could be for a variety of reasons, but it is important for your student to be aware what their non-negotiables are when it comes to what they will or will not accept from a relationship. It may be very difficult when it comes time to end the relationship, but it is usually mutually beneficial for both parties. During these times, you might need to provide your student some space to process or some distance in general. Remind your student that you are there and check in as needed.