The Fall Semester - Taking Your Kid Back to College

Summer is nearing its end. It is my job to remind you that now it is time to contact us to plan your next snow vacation... OK, done!  But what's really going on?  If you have kids, lots!

It's the college kids that seem to have the greatest impact.  They live with you for what seems like forever, and then they finally leave and are certain to contact you only when they need something like money or plane tickets.  They'll let you know when they were mistreated by the 'cruel' world. For instance, when the professor gave them that horrible grade, or the roommate's sister stole their expensive shoes and so on. But... for the most part.... they are SILENT.  Then they come home for the summer....

We've all just lived it.  They are no longer our 'children'.  They are now our roommates who do not pay rent, never fill the tank with gas or clean any of the dishes.  They certainly don't offer to do your laundry - you only hope they do their own while they reside in such close proximity.  And they come and go as they please, perhaps even disappearing for days at a time without a care in the world.

And what do WE do??? We take it!  We become their servants and spend 3 months tiptoeing about, even though we pay the mortgage, fill the refrigerator as well as the gas tank.

Moving forth, here's what we ALL get to do in the coming weeks:

• Take them to mall with an extra-long list of everything they could ever need or want.

• Have the student vehicle serviced, detailed, inspected and prepared for complete neglect over the next several months. The fuel tank will be full the day we deliver them to campus and empty the next time we see it, and the next, and the next, etc.
• Log the dorm move-in date and then alter everything on our regular schedule to accommodate the trip. Then we reserve all emotion when the college kid asks us "What day we leaving?" roughly 48 hours prior to departure.  With our answer, they subsequently disappear until the moment of departure so they might have those last cherished moments with the friends they complained about throughout high school.  We get to pack the car. 

• Upon arrival, we proceed to 'clean' the entire domicile, cause there is absolutely no way someone else could have satisfactorily prepared living quarters for our precious offspring.

• We unpack with little assistance from the owner of all this stuff and make endless trips to Bed, Bath and Beyond for the proper storage containers cause the University couldn't possibly do it right.  In reality, those items will be unloaded into those new receptacles only that one single time, cause once we leave, anything worn or used will be retired to one large pile somewhere on or under the bed.

• Last you stage a last chance family dinner near campus, hand the kid a wad of cash, remind them of everything they should do for great success and head back to start planning their next trip home.... 

Remember, you just got your house back!!! Let me help plan the next reunion on the snow..  We hope to see you soon!

Joyce