The time had come again for a new crop of young adults to leave for college. Some of you parents are ecstatic, some of you are sad, and most of you are shell-shocked wondering just how the years went by so quickly. You hope you raised them to make good choices. As you pull out your wallets and credit cards paying for the latest “must have” for the college dorm room or apartment there are a few things to remember: 1) Just because your son/daughter is now a young adult, you still don’t know very much. Unsolicited parental advice will still get shrugs, eye rolling, and fast and furious texting to friends. These friends know everything, and every bit of advice needed will be asked of them, not you. It may help you to know that the older they get, the smarter you get. 2) I know right now that you are swallowing a lump in your throat and picturing your cute little cherub on his way to kindergarten class, but please remember not to be too clingy or the little cherub will be 37, living in your basement and playing video games while you are still washing his dirty socks. Speaking of dirty laundry, I hope you know that he will come for the first visit home carrying a big bag of it and asking you with puppy dog eyes if you will wash it for him because he is “so tired from all that studying”. Like he did. Like you’re not. You will almost certainly cave in the first few times because you have missed him so much, but hopefully you will realize that while you are doing laundry, he is heading out the door to have some fun with his friends. If you still don’t get it, please reread the part about dirty socks and your basement. 3) If he will be moving to an apartment, BEWARE. I know since you are old enough to have a child in college, you may think that you are old enough to start misplacing things, but I can almost guarantee that you are not. From your food storage containers to your best paring knife, it will end up in their apartment. This goes for things like small kitchen appliances and irons, even if they have never touched either a day in their lives. Your soft fluffy bath towels will be lying in a damp heap on their bathroom floor while you are drying yourself on thin, worn out towels destined for the rag-bag. Be prepared for big-ticket grocery items to disappear, too. Bread, cheese, toilet paper, leftover roasts, laundry detergent, you name it, they’ll “borrow” it.
Note that I have used the words “he” and “they” when writing this column. This is because I didn’t want to use the pronoun “she” in case someone might think I am writing from the experiences of my own little cherub. She is now old enough to know that her mother does indeed have a little bit of sense, and I am old enough to know that she may someday choose my nursing home. I hope I raised her to make good choices.
Hilarious! I’m giggling though my grief today. Thanks! 🙂
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This was written with you in mind, my empty-nested loon.
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Thanks for reading!
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