<p>Just read this charming LA Times piece on the yearly ritual now taking place at Targets across the country (including the one here in Kingston, NY, where I live): </p>
<p>[Packing</a> up college kids for the big move - latimes.com](<a href=“http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-0731-parentology-college-shop-20100731,0,6556990.story]Packing”>Packing up college kids for the big move)</p>
<p>It sounds vaguely familiar…but my music major son was much more concerned about how he was going to tote four instruments, his concert clothes and shoes, music stands (multiple), filing cabinets of music, and other music related “stuff” than he was about the sheets and towels he took to college.</p>
<p>My kids shopped at “Our Linen Closet” first…and both took whatever was there first for free. Hey…if anyone was going to get new towels, it was going to be ME…the kids took the old ones. </p>
<p>DD went 3000 miles away…toting a ton of stuff was not an option. </p>
<p>Outfitting dorms is big business…but frankly I don’t understand why kids need all new stuff for a college dorm room. My kids wanted a “taste of home”</p>
<p>Lest there be any question about the author’s perspective:
Many, certainly not all, students going away to college have had their food cooked for them, their linens purchased for them, their medicine cabinets stocked, etc., for the past 18 years. The notion that something magical occurred when they turned 18 or when they received a college acceptance is patently absurd. Many of these students still need help in what we adults deal with on a day-to-day basis.</p>
<p>All this means is that for their first dorm room/leaving home experience many students are in need of assistance or guidance. Does it mean that a parent should buy everything, turn the dorm room into a carbon copy of the home bedroom, or micromanage every aspect of the move? Of course not. But parental assistance in setting things up for first timers is a responsibility, not a hindrance.</p>
<p>Without a doubt, there are students who are fully capable of leaving for their freshman years without a shred of help and there are others who need someone to tell them which brand of pencils is best for them. The vast majority fall in between, requiring some help while at the same time enjoying significant autonomy over the process. And I think most parents and students understand that.</p>
<p>I wanted to add that the list of what to bring and what is not allowed at some schools may be way more complex than the lists of suggested clothing, bedding and toiletries that we used to get from summer camps. There can be many technical details with regard to electrical cords, power strips, computer cables, laptop locks, etc. etc. Also for some kids, the idea of deciding what they really need to take and fitting everything into a tiny space that is shared with other people adds another level of complexity. Anyway, I find the assistance with shopping/planning to be fun in these final days, kind of like going on a scavenger hunt!</p>
<p>My biggest mistake the first time we moved a kid in was not following behind in my pick-up truck with a couple dozen hand trucks.</p>
<p>I could have made at killing at $300 a pop. </p>
<p>People would have paid. </p>
<p>:D</p>
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<p>N8Ma, I don’t recall you telling us that Bard was moving offshore, a bit to the east of Atlantic City. Is this for marketing reasons, or are you guys simply tired of putting up with New York State politicians?</p>
<p>haha yeah call that a typo, or just regional ignorance? </p>
<p>Here in the east, we normally call the neighborhood 90 miles due south of Manhattan the Atlantic Ocean, right?</p>
<p>Though, knowing Leon, I’m sure some kind of submersible campus has been at least considered. </p>
<p>That’s how I found the article in the first place…anything with Bard College in it shows up in my google reader…</p>
<p>Well, Bard of Atlantis has a nice ring to it, even if it does sound like a SyFy Channel series.</p>
<p>It sounded a bit fishy.</p>
<p>yes in our latest Bard creation, we will the plumb the depths…of the human soul…</p>