Stress

The college application process is extraordinarily stressful for young people. There's nothing quite so awful as having to present your best self on paper and sending that off to a group of total strangers who will then judge if you're worthy of attending their university or not.

The stress your kids feel will translate into stress for you, because you're invested in your students. Furthermore, your workload during application season is going to be heavy. You're going to be dishing out advice about essays and recommendations and school rankings left and right.

However, you can't let stress get to you. You need to be an oasis of calm, an island of serenity for your poor, completely-freaked-out students, so they don't go over the edge and take the entire senior class with them.