Why did I allow my daughter to board?

I grew up in Hong Kong as a privileged expat teenager where I attended a private international school. My family and I lived in the city and had a live in maid. My parents were strict and thought highly of excellent grades as the path to university and therefore a chosen career and so controlled my social and academic time. The result was entrance into my first choice of university in the UK.

This may sound like a success story however…

My first year of university was the hardest year of my life and I exaggerate not. I suffered terribly from homesickness. I struggled to look after myself properly. My first attempt at boiling rice was in a pan with no water. I ended up resorting to take-outs and increasing my body weight by 10kgs in the first year. I could not balance my social life and my academic commitments and my grades definitely suffered. The leap from home to university was far too big.

My daughter bridged this leap with boarding school; the best decision I could have made for her. My daughter entered Crawfurd House and loved every moment of her life there. She made friends, who are more like sisters and will be in her life forever. They were a tight unit, who shared worries, concerns, disappointments, celebrations, success and joy and this continues today even though they are living in Australia, the US and the UK, the sharing continues. My daughter lived away from home and yet could return home whenever she needed to, which happened to only be on Saturday afternoon and night and even then she would enjoy social outings with her friends. Boarding school taught my daughter independence, it supported her and encouraged her to make good choices especially when creating good study habits. It taught her to balance work, sleep, exercise and down time. It gave her opportunities to lead and showed her how to work as a team player. Boarding taught her how to look after herself in terms of nutrition and domestic chores ie ironing, fixing a zip or changing a light bulb etc.

My daughter’s transition from home to university was smooth – why? Because it was bridged by boarding school.