We spent last weekend with our daughter and my parents at her college. For me at least, it was strange. Seeing her as her own person, making her own decisions and charting her own path apart from us. Everyone who has kids in college goes through something similar. The child you invested 18 years into raising so you could get to this point, now it has happened, now they're out of the house. Now there's that strange void where they used to be. It's different when they're away for the day at high school. You know they'll be back later in the day. Now it's stretched out to weeks at a time, maybe months, with just a phone call every so often. And all you can do is wait, and adapt.
But they are standing on they're own two feet. Your parenting role is different, you are the sideline coach, still important, but in a different way. There's still memories to be made and fun to be had. And a wonderful future to look forward to.
Showing posts with label college. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
A new back to school
It’s been the “Back to School” season since mid-July. We’ve been doing this for about 13 – 14 years, actually, we still are. For us now, we are at the tail end of it. Now there’s a new component, we have a freshman college student. Our little girl will be going away for a significant amount of time.
In the past she had gone to summer camp, for a week. Then she went on a trip with her Aunt and Uncle and cousins, for about a week. This last summer she, her sister and her cousin went on a driving trip out to the East coast. That took three weeks and was a strange experience for my wife and I, the house was so quiet for so long even though we heard from them a couple times a week. It was so good to have them back safe and sound. They had a wonderful time and would do it again in heartbeat.
Now she will be going to college and staying away for a much longer time, visiting occasionally. It will take some getting used to as she becomes more and more independent. Slowly but surely we will adjust, and look forward to becoming “empty nesters” when our youngest goes off in two years. Wait, I’m not sure about that looking forward part.
Transitions are a challenge we all face. Time goes by, things change, routines, relationships, situations. As a parent that seemed to happen every 3 or 4 months as the girls grew up. They’d learn a new skill, grow, develop, change something. From infancy on most of the time I felt like I was playing a game of catch-up. I get used to one way of dealing with them and then they do something different, like a new food or whatever. The learning curve starts all over again. *sigh* When the girls were growing up, one of my favorite routines was when they were into the cheeseburger macaroni skillet meals. It was easy for me because I was the main cook in the house, but it was also a special time when we could be together and have fun. That lasted about 6 – 8 months, then they’re tastes changed.
Now that one is leaving and another will be leaving soon enough, we have some big adjustments to go through. I wanted to share this with you, if you find this, and put together some other resources for you to check out that might make the transition a little easier.
Some Links:
Letting go
Cleaver Words
Google at College
Hope you found this helpful, maybe just a little something to take the edge off of your anxiety or something. I’ll be back with some more stuff from time to time so stop by again and until then , take care. Thanks.
In the past she had gone to summer camp, for a week. Then she went on a trip with her Aunt and Uncle and cousins, for about a week. This last summer she, her sister and her cousin went on a driving trip out to the East coast. That took three weeks and was a strange experience for my wife and I, the house was so quiet for so long even though we heard from them a couple times a week. It was so good to have them back safe and sound. They had a wonderful time and would do it again in heartbeat.
Now she will be going to college and staying away for a much longer time, visiting occasionally. It will take some getting used to as she becomes more and more independent. Slowly but surely we will adjust, and look forward to becoming “empty nesters” when our youngest goes off in two years. Wait, I’m not sure about that looking forward part.
Transitions are a challenge we all face. Time goes by, things change, routines, relationships, situations. As a parent that seemed to happen every 3 or 4 months as the girls grew up. They’d learn a new skill, grow, develop, change something. From infancy on most of the time I felt like I was playing a game of catch-up. I get used to one way of dealing with them and then they do something different, like a new food or whatever. The learning curve starts all over again. *sigh* When the girls were growing up, one of my favorite routines was when they were into the cheeseburger macaroni skillet meals. It was easy for me because I was the main cook in the house, but it was also a special time when we could be together and have fun. That lasted about 6 – 8 months, then they’re tastes changed.
Now that one is leaving and another will be leaving soon enough, we have some big adjustments to go through. I wanted to share this with you, if you find this, and put together some other resources for you to check out that might make the transition a little easier.
Some Links:
Letting go
Cleaver Words
Google at College
Hope you found this helpful, maybe just a little something to take the edge off of your anxiety or something. I’ll be back with some more stuff from time to time so stop by again and until then , take care. Thanks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)