Parents of the Class of 2019

[Lynne G]

Yep, DD is enjoying college life. Did call me last night to say, cannot believe it will be almost a month gone already. Likes her roommate, and has gone in town with other kids to explore. Said maybe she may come home on Sunday, but maybe not. According to her older brother, she’s been home almost every weekend, then we have to drive her back, and he’s not happy about that. Though we all miss having her home. At least she gets the whole week of Thanksgiving off.

So glad to hear other kids are settling in, making friends, sports, and roommates.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Heard from DS earlier today, but it was a just a quick laundry question.

Seeing him last weekend really eased the transition for DH and I, and DS seems comfortable on campus now. He also signed up for a math tutor right away, which I'm glad about. - I didn't want him to wait until he was drowning.

MIL went with me to drive him back, as she's wanted to see the campus for ages, so it was nice to have her company on the ride home. We stopped to eat, and made a nice day of it.

 

[Eureka]

We saw DS last weekend bc he came to DS16's meet. We had a lot of questions and he patiently answered everything. Sounds like he and his roommate get along fine but aren't really friends and don't talk much. Which is fine. He's joined club running and has a time trial tomorrow and signed up for Quiz Bowl too. He's been going to football games and can't wait for basktball season - exciting to go to a D1 school. He says he wants to come with us to his brother's meet next weekend too. We record Jeopardy every night and he can access it on his computer so as soon as it's done recording, we watch together and chat on our family text. It's fun.

 

[soccerdad72]

We got a phone call from our son on Sunday night without any prodding from us. Before he left for college, we mentioned possibly calling us on Sunday nights, something I started years ago with my parents when I was in college (mostly, I think, because that was the cheapest long distance rates ).

We don't hear from him much. I think he's joining the rock climbing club there, but otherwise, I think he's mostly keeping to himself. Sounds like him and his roommate go to workout a couple days a week, which is a change for him, as he was never really a "working out" kind of kid, even when he was playing soccer. Otherwise, things sound like they're going ok. We won't see him again until late October, for family weekend.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Well, so much for my nice update earlier. We just got a call from DS that he lost his wallet. ☹

DH has frozen the credit card already, and thankfully, his school ID was in his lanyard, so he's OK for the dining hall. He was off campus at the time, so I had him report it to the town police non-emergency line in case it was stolen or someone finds it and turns it in, but he said they weren't very helpful.

PSA - Have your kids put their new local address and cell phone number in their purse/wallet! - We realized that if someone nice does find it, all they can do is mail it back here (address on his license) so we won't even know right away. (sigh)

I know in the grand scheme of things it could be worse, but it's hard to be far away when they're going through something rough.

 

[mom2rtk]

Well, so much for my nice update earlier. We just got a call from DS that he lost his wallet. ☹

DH has frozen the credit card already, and thankfully, his school ID was in his lanyard, so he's OK for the dining hall. He was off campus at the time, so I had him report it to the town police non-emergency line in case it was stolen or someone finds it and turns it in, but he said they weren't very helpful.

PSA - Have your kids put their new local address and cell phone number in their purse/wallet! - We realized that if someone nice does find it, all they can do is mail it back here (address on his license) so we won't even know right away. (sigh)

I know in the grand scheme of things it could be worse, but it's hard to be far away when they're going through something rough.

Ugh. So frustrating! Thanks for the PSA though. I'll tell her to put her local name/address/cell number somewhere in her purse and backpack. I doubt she has done so.

I got to visit Tuesday after class. I needed to take her a medication refill and I was more than happy to make the trip. I'm spoiled by having her only 2 hours away. Had dinner, did some shopping and was home in time for bed.

Thankfully she's still doing well. She's getting along great with the roommate. Thank heaven! They seem to be a good pair.

We got a phone call from our son on Sunday night without any prodding from us. Before he left for college, we mentioned possibly calling us on Sunday nights, something I started years ago with my parents when I was in college (mostly, I think, because that was the cheapest long distance rates ).

We don't hear from him much. I think he's joining the rock climbing club there, but otherwise, I think he's mostly keeping to himself. Sounds like him and his roommate go to workout a couple days a week, which is a change for him, as he was never really a "working out" kind of kid, even when he was playing soccer. Otherwise, things sound like they're going ok. We won't see him again until late October, for family weekend.

DD has been working out with a couple different friends. Like your son, she never was a "working out" kind of kid, even during tennis season. But Mizzou has a top notch rec center and it's included on her bill, so I'm glad she's taking advantage of it.

 

[TB'sWidow]

So glad for those of you able to physically see your college kids , I’m not close enough for mine. We have been able to FaceTime an text she has had a couple of scheduling bumps an was getting a cold so I have sent my first care package but overall she seems to be doing well. Dd has established a core group of friends already an has been to Central Park twice already on the weekend.

 

[yeahdisney]

DS joined 2 outside clubs/ organizations. Fencing and sword fighting- good gravy -wear your knee braces-he dislocates kneeS easily. He is going to an overnight event with others and they are sleeping in a tent!
Practice is 2 nights a week and 3 hours on saturdays.

He roamed a safe but long distance to a Pizza Hut (he had a gift card). Did a class event to go to a mock interview. So he is out and about.

He hung with DD a little bit last night, she did a target run with girls and got him some food items. They have eaten together a couple of times down in the cafeteria .

He got books, almost hit his credit card limit, I accidentally noticed so I paid it so it would be assessable to him again.

I just ordered him a lightweight jacket to ship to him there. He is tall and outgrew the arm length for the one left here at home. So he has a package coming.

We will pop down for supper Tuesday with them- it is DH bday and he is having BAD empty nest syndrome.

Since we can see them easily I don’t send care packages. Plus the kids don’t like the offerings in the care packages. But I don’t mind offering them to purchase items and us reimburse them, as a treat. And I do plan on doing Kohl’s Veterans Day sale 10 off 25 with free pick up, a couple of times to get items needed for cold weather etc.

DS gets along with his bedroom room mate fine. DS says all 4 of the suite mates just leave their stuff in the bathroom-oook.

And thanks everyone chatting about our kids, it is fun to watch them grow. And I get a lot of great ideas from this thread.

 

[bjscheel]

DD has been working out with a couple different friends. Like your son, she never was a "working out" kind of kid, even during tennis season. But Mizzou has a top notch rec center and it's included on her bill, so I'm glad she's taking advantage of it.

DD became somewhat of a working out kid over the past year, but she's not experienced. She found a new machine Wednesday and went overboard on the reps. Now her thighs are killing her.

She was home only briefly this weekend but I had a long phone chat with her on her drive up in which I heard about all kinds of new friends, which professors are awesome, her theatre mentors, playing dodgeball in rec class ("the football players here are 4 times as big as me"), how she gets to record a song in a real studio, how she has figured out her life and career! So I guess we are set

Today I got the first homework help call. Spent a while talking through some psychology stuff which fortunately she had also encountered last year in Philosophy or else we would have been totally lost.

 

[bigbabyblues]

DS is doing well as far as we can tell. He has only called me once but has called DH a few times. He still answers about half of our texts, which is fine. One of us usually hears from him pretty much every day. He called before he came home over Labor Day and said that his phone battery was not holding a charge and he had ordered a replacement kit to ship to our house. It came after he went back, of course. DH went up there on Friday to change out the battery and take a few things he wanted. DS really likes the guys in his hall (this would be the hallway he lives in, I had to ask). They eat dinner together just about every night and do various activities together-they were going to a corn maze yesterday. He is attending sports events on campus, he is playing on an intramural soccer team, and has started playing sand volleyball. He is staying busy and has texted for help with a couple of his papers so far.

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

I talked to DD for the second time last night. She's settled in really well, she and her roommate are friends, the school hit one out of the park on that pairing! They did "soft-taco Tuesday" last Tuesday in the dorm kitchen. She made my taco filling recipe and had a group of 10 friends with roommate, suite mates, and other friends she's made attending. When I called yesterday she was in her suite with a group of kids studying, so I think she's really enjoying everything. She said that her underwater hockey club is pretty interesting, and they're teaching breath control. I said that should be easy for her with her scuba/swim team/lifeguard training and she laughed and said they were making her better.

According to the school website, she's not listed as a sophomore, so they did grant her the 30 AP credits, she just needs to talk to her counselor and get the specifics as to which credits/classes she's getting credited with.

She also said they're cleaning the bathroom a lot, because her suite mates are a bit more of partiers than she and her roommate are, and they have friends over to "pre-game", and that drunk/tipsy college boys don't hit the toilet. I asked if it bothered her and she said not at all, they're always invited to go, and everyone is really nice, and it's only on the weekends so it's not an issue.

She's also met with the ski club, and found out that they'll take 4 trips over the ski season to resorts in NH, she's good with the cost, so she's enrolled. She also said that she's had several friends who were intrigued with the skiing in Colorado, so she told them that if they wanted to book flights and rentals over the holidays, we'd put them up in the condo and maybe get buddy passes to come skiing, so we may have a few college friends come visit over their Christmas break if they can. I'm thinking it may be more like Spring Break, but it's OK whenever it is!

I'm really glad that everyone's kiddos seem to be settling in really well!

 

[design_mom]

Bummer about the lost wallet @PollyannaMom. I hope it's not too much of a hassle to get everything replaced.

This week is DS's first set of exams in a couple of his classes. He seems to feel pretty confident going in (one is tomorrow, one is wednesday) so hopefully he will feel as confident coming out of them. He's got 'grades' in all of his classes and he's happy with where he's at, but the exams are weighted heavily enough that they're a big factor. He also found out that he will have one large final project for his business classes, but will not have 'finals' in those, so finals week shouldn't be too bad. (However, the business group project sounds like it could be very stressful!)

He still sounds like he's settling in well. He says he misses his dogs, but hasn't said he misses me! (I tried to get him to say it last night on FaceTime, but all he'd do is grin at me. We've set up a weekly Sunday FaceTime call and up until yesterday he seemed very disinterested in talking and ended the call as quickly as he could. But last night he seemed to want to chat --and talked for almost a half hour about this and that. It was great.

A lot of the parents on DS's college's parent group are saying that their kids are starting to freak out/get homesick now though. The newness of being on their own has worn off and the workload is really ramping up. I didn't get that impression from DS really... but I remember feeling that way about a month into college myself.

 

[PollyannaMom]

A lot of the parents on DS's college's parent group are saying that their kids are starting to freak out/get homesick now though. The newness of being on their own has worn off and the workload is really ramping up. I didn't get that impression from DS really... but I remember feeling that way about a month into college myself.

We actually have parents' weekend coming up on the 27th, and I think that may be why they schedule it then.

 

[design_mom]

Ours isn't till mid-October (and the weekend after they get a long weekend for "Fall Break.") It seems like odd timing to me! The last weekend of September would actually be great for us since that's DS's birthday weekend. We're planning on driving down just for a day to take him to lunch... unless he decides he wants to come home.

 

[soccerdad72]

Ours isn't till mid-October (and the weekend after they get a long weekend for "Fall Break.") It seems like odd timing to me! The last weekend of September would actually be great for us since that's DS's birthday weekend. We're planning on driving down just for a day to take him to lunch... unless he decides he wants to come home.

Ours is the other way around - they have a fall break over Columbus Day weekend (Mon-Tues off) and then the following weekend is Parents Weekend.

 

[design_mom]

Ours is the other way around - they have a fall break over Columbus Day weekend (Mon-Tues off) and then the following weekend is Parents Weekend.

I think ours might be the same -- I must have just been confusing.
Our fall break is Oct 11-13 (columbus day is Oct 14, but they don't get Monday off).
Then parent weekend is Oct 19-20.
Edit: I just looked at the college calendar and it appears that the university "observes" Columbus Day on the Friday after Thanksgiving. ;-)

 

[Eureka]

I think ours might be the same -- I must have just been confusing.
Our fall break is Oct 11-13 (columbus day is Oct 14, but they don't get Monday off).
Then parent weekend is Oct 19-20.
Edit: I just looked at the college calendar and it appears that the university "observes" Columbus Day on the Friday after Thanksgiving. ;-)

Our family weekend is the same weekend but he doesn't have a fall break of any kind. Talked to him the other day and he says in some ways it's just like high school in that he's got classes and lots of work to do at night/on weekends but in other ways it's different, for example the running club he's joined - everyone practices because they want to, not because they have to. He never gets too excited about much at all (unless it has to do with Jeopardy or any kind of trivia, that is his thing and he's signed up for Quiz Bowl at school), so it doesn't really phase me to hear him say his week was "fine. uneventful."

 

[PollyannaMom]

I think ours might be the same -- I must have just been confusing.
Our fall break is Oct 11-13 (columbus day is Oct 14, but they don't get Monday off).
Then parent weekend is Oct 19-20.

I found this odd as well. DS's also has Friday but not Monday listed. They call it "Fall Long Weekend" but it's the same as any other for him, as he has no Friday classes.

 

[wishesuponastar]

Sorry about the lost wallet. Hope that everything worked out.

Does anyone else’s student not like talking on the phone? Even when she was home she didn’t do it either. Thank goodness for texting.

DD seems to be settling in nicely going out to eat and dining halls with friends. She was home 2 weekends ago because she was going somewhere with her boyfriend we hardly saw her but did have a good breakfast one morning.

 

[mjkacmom]

I think ours might be the same -- I must have just been confusing.
Our fall break is Oct 11-13 (columbus day is Oct 14, but they don't get Monday off).
Then parent weekend is Oct 19-20.
Edit: I just looked at the college calendar and it appears that the university "observes" Columbus Day on the Friday after Thanksgiving. ;-)

Same here, except I don’t think they observe Columbus Day. It’s weird they give them the Friday instead of the Monday off. We are skipping parents weekend, I’d rather go when we can get a hotel for under $300 a night, avoid crazy traffic, and be able to get restaurant reservations.