Just a Warning...

[Inquartata]

Time?! You had TIME? Luxury!

Why, when I was a lad Chronos himself had not yet been born! We had no concept of time! Even death from old age came as a complete surprise to us!

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

With our son, the 'leaving for college' trauma was pretty minor compared to the earlier 'leaving for the Philippines as an exchange student right after Marcos was deposed' trauma. As a 16 year-old he spent a year in a small town crawling with communist guerillas and dripping with tropical diseases. That scared me and I worried every day for the entire year. I had absolutely no problems with him on a U.S. college campus.

My friend just got his wife back from summer trip. Sounds ho-hum?

No. She - and their 1 year old daughter - was visiting her family in Georgia, some 50 km away from the border to South Ossetia. Then the war started. The consulate managed to get a bus to the capital of Armenia, and they flew from there to Riga and then to Copenhagen. He got his family back safe and sound a few hours ago, but has been worrying himself sick.

Sending your kids to college is a walk in the park, in comparison. Oh well, I might get all worked up when my sons go there (they are 11 and 7 now).


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[MyrddinsPrecint]

We got the same note yesterday... I'm afraid it brought out the "Jewish Mother" in me: "What! And I'm not capable of throwing some whatever into a box and mailing it?!?"

Can someone tell my mom about this whole "being thrilled about care packages" thing?! I've been at college for two years and only gotten like two of them!.

In four years at college, I only once got a package from my parents I didn't have to BEG for. It contained two wrist warmers. The college care packages had a bunch of things I couldn't eat, so they told me early on that they weren't going to do them. It didn't occur to them they could send me something.

I did, however, get care packages from friends, and the parents of friends.

It doesn't have to be big, but if you're one of the (sane, nice, etc) parents who realizes how important care packages are, send some extra cookies for the roommate, or the floor mates. Get addresses of your kid's friends from high school that you know, and send them cards every so often.

[Welted 24/7]

A few words of advice to the parental units in this thread- for the love of god, don't call your kid at 8:30 AM on a Saturday and ask how their week was, or what they did last night, or whatever else. And if you do, and they pick up and sound groggy, don't make fun of them for not being awake yet. Odds are you'll either get hung up on, or an extremely grouchy "Don't call me this early" from a kid who, despite not living at home anymore, still feels like you're just in the next room over.

Please, let them live a little. If you raised them right, they'll call you, probably not as often as you want, but it'll be when they need it, and as far as I can tell, that's sort of what you guys are looking for.

[Zilverzmurfen]

What...is a "care package"..?

[Inquartata]

This organization

http://www.care.org/

used to make up and send out aid packages to poor people in underdeveloped countries, to peoples displaced by wars and natural disasters, and so forth. Maybe it still does. These came to be called "CARE packages". Eventually the phrase was applied to packages people send to friends and families, particulary children away at school or camp or whatever---cookies, personal grooming items, laundry detergent, clothes, etc.

[Phincer]

A few words of advice to the parental units in this thread- for the love of god, don't call your kid at 8:30 AM on a Saturday and ask how their week was, or what they did last night, or whatever else. .

What? Do you think after the last year+ of getting up at 6 on a Sat. a.m. to drive the darling 130(r/t) miles to a fencing lesson that WE will be awake enough to call the child at that hour???? Surely you jest...

Not to mention the gazillion weekends where we were up at dawn driving to tournaments and missing the entire weekend?

no. No. NO. WE are sleeping!!!!

Oh. Sorry. Your parents did that. Poor kid.

[whiteandbluefencer]

Whiteandblue, you're funny- I almost feel like I know you! Have fun in college...don't forget us on f.net!

Thanks! And I won't forget you all! See, I'm back from my leadership conference and already on fencing.net. Now, I might not be on here too much the next couple of weeks though, because I have RA training, Orientation, Student Activities Fair (yay, fencing club table!), and then classes start!

When I was in college, we didn't even HAVE caves. Not enough geological time had passed to allow any caves to form.

I have a cave... I live on the ground floor of my dorm, which is half underground (thankfully, I live on the not-underground-side ). My college is on a hill...

What...is a "care package"..?

No care packages in Sweden !

[Zilverzmurfen]

No care packages in Sweden !

From the description it sounds like wellfare (no real need for that in Sweden...) or just regular pressies from your friends and family.

We just call presents "presents". *shrug*

[MyrddinsPrecint]

From the description it sounds like wellfare (no real need for that in Sweden...) or just regular pressies from your friends and family.

We just call presents "presents". *shrug*

Well, they really are just presents from your friends and family, they're just a subset thereof. The ones mailed, when you're far away.

[whiteandbluefencer]

From the description it sounds like wellfare (no real need for that in Sweden...) or just regular pressies from your friends and family.

We just call presents "presents". *shrug*

Oh, something lost in translation... yeah, they're just nice things that parents are suppose to send to their children when they're at college.

[pinkelephant]

Oh, something lost in translation... yeah, they're just nice things that parents are suppose to send to their children when they're at college.

I thought that was money.

[whiteandbluefencer]

Money works too...

[Inquartata]

When I was in the Army, stationed abroad, I had money. What I could not get were things like my mom's chocolate chip cookies...and for that matter a lot of things you can buy in the States but which either were not available overseas or bore a 200% luxury tax or whatever. Hence the "care packages" ( which also usually included letters, photos and the like ).

Man, and I thought that I was a good capitalist! "Money, money, money"...

[Zilverzmurfen]

...my mom's chocolate chip cookies...

You have a mom..?

If you're ancient, one wonders how old she is!

[Inquartata]

Bear in mind that when I say "the Army" I meant the Akkadian army under Sargon the Great.

[hologramqueen]

I am starting to feel those pangs even though my daughter won't be heading east till next year for college.. My husband has joked that I will be following her to school because of the quasi "helicopter mother" tendencies I have.. I can think of worse tendencies!
Everyone I know who's daughter/son has gone off to college told me to start preparing.. It doesn't make it any less easier, but knowing the values that my daughter has, helps set my mind at ease somewhat.. Still want to be protective because our children are precious no matter what age..
This year is going to go by quickly and I will be having the same feelings you are experiencing now.. Im hoping that they diminish for you and make this transition easier..
My own Mom has been teasing me about this because I lived in Australia for 4 years in my early 20's.. Back then it was the once a month phone call, the letters and cards, and the goodies that could only come from the states..
Make those cookies, send happy nothing day gifts.. thank goodness for the internet....

[mrbiggs]

Well, I have to say, mine is pretty good but by no means perfect about the time management issue.

That was something I left off-his time management skills are better than average, so I thought he could handle the xbox and bring it home in December if it was a distraction.

I read a study about three years ago where they studied the brain development in boys from pre-puberty through college. They found out that the parts of the brain that control time management, prioritization, etc. (all those skills that really help in high school and college) don't develop in males until the early twenties, sometimes not until they are 25 years of age.

That explains a whole lot of stuff I've been seeing lately. I also have seen the time management skills improve every six months or so.

There is hope.

You're really just backing me up here. You need to know time management in college if you want to pass, period. An X-Box is not the issue. He'll have friends with X Boxes, as well as a multitude of other things more fun to do than study. If he can't figure out when which thing is right, the X-Box is pretty moot.

[lindajdunn]

Parents phoning kids at college? What an old-fashioned idea.

My kids moved out more than a decade ago and I E-MAILED them.

Yes, even back in those days it was possible to use computers to send and receive messages that could be read and replied to regardless of one's sleep/wake pattern.

[Hyena]

I'm in my junior year of highschool and it hasn't quite hit the Hyenamommy yet that I'll be graduating soon, thankfully. (She's... one of those mothers that sobs so loudly throughout graduation ceremonies that she doesn't hear her child's name being called.)

I fully expect our relationship to go downhill after I go off to college, sadly. I'm going to want to be living my own life, and she's going to want to live it for me.

Oh, well. Worse things have happened.