<p>I am so excited. We’ve been calling our son every Sunday afternoon since he started the semester and today, for the first time, he initiated the call! I wonder if it has started to feel like a natural rhthym so he thought to do it. Very gratifying.</p>
<p>Bethievt, great to hear that! And great to hear from YOU!</p>
<p>I can’t wait until I’m in the same position. Today I asked my son who he’s been hanging out with. The answer: “Some kids you don’t know.”</p>
<p>Well, that’s sure helpful . . . . </p>
<p>I miss him. Can’t wait till it gets better.</p>
<p>How much did he ask for?</p>
<p>(Just kidding)</p>
<p>Very happy for you Bethievt !! That’s a good sign.</p>
<p>LOL ucsd dad- the thought had crossed my mind as well…</p>
<p>Very funny you guys–he didn’t need money but was heading in to a tough week academically–maybe needed reassurance that he didn’t need his usual kick-a** grades to be ok. We said it was all good–he loves a history of religion class and is doing ok with some others. So much going on first semester!</p>
<p>bethievt,
What a wonderful surprise. I’m very happy for you. Your son sounds as though he’s found the right place and is willing to share the joy and struggles with you.<br>
After four years, we occasionally forget to call son1 when we’ve been busy or on college visits with son 2. Son 1 now calls our cell phones to check up on us when he can’t find his little brother online. He had a good internship last summer so no longer has cash flow problems. After a couple years away, he started calling my husband at his office once in a while to tell him about an awesome lecture, great piano lesson, or successful exam. My husband always follows a son-initiated call with a note and an envelope containing a variety of things from home or his office: news clippings, pictures of our dog, pens, or a couple days from his Far Side calendar. This could be why he gets the calls.</p>
<p>It really is amazing to watch them become adults, and so nice when they actually want to share some of their experiences with us.</p>
<p>It always takes me by surprise when S1 calls for no real reason just to say hi. Especially when we had to remind him about four weeks into freshman year that we were shelling out mucho, mucho bucks (a nice new car in the garage every year kind of bucks) and we deserved at least one call or email per month for that price! BTW, the car analogy got his attention, whereas $45k didn’t seem to mean much to him!</p>
<p>I’m so glad he called, bethie. Mine has called exactly once…on my birthday.</p>
<p>It’s great to know he’s so busy and happy, but as has been said by parent after parent…we MISS him.</p>
<p>LOL Helimom. I could have written your post.</p>
<p>After we dropped S off at college, H and I decided to wait for S to call us, and we’ve pretty much stuck with that, although we do call him when necessary (installing 10yo D’s new Wii–birthday present–S is our technical guru). S usually calls once or twice a week, depending on his schedule. We e-mail him with things we think he’d find interesting, and my H has been mailing him postcards with quotes written on them. A recent one was from Mark Twain’s "Life on the Mississippi, spoken by Huck Finn: "I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself ‘alright, then, I’ll go to Hell.’ " on deciding whether to turn in Jim, the slave.</p>
<p>H went up for Family weekend (I stayed home with aforementioned 10yo, sigh), and S had all the postcards stuck up on his wall.</p>
<p>HeliMom,
He Knew what day your birthday was? I’m still in shock. I’m certain my DS had to be reminded several times by DH to call me on my birthday.</p>
<p>If S2 doesn’t call me on my birthday when he goes away, I’ll stop paying his tuition!</p>
<p>He was my 30th birthday present, btw.</p>
<p>I try calling home 2 or 3 times a week. My mom and dad are divorced, so its usually a double round of calling, but it’s not really a big deal. The time difference has made it a bit difficult (8 hours difference between LA and London), but college students don’t sleep, anyway. :)</p>
<p>The week before my mom’s birthday this year (it was over summer break but I was interning in DC), I kept reminding myself to call home for her birthday (on a Wednesday)… middle of the week rolled around, and I completely forgot. By the time I realized it (6 the next morning), it was a tad too late. I called the next day and apologized profusely. I felt a bit guilty.</p>
<p>My birthday happened to be 4 days after S left for school. All during that day H called me to see if I heard from S. Finally in the late afternoon I get a call from S who promtly says “Hey mom Happy Bday, I didn’t forget”. I never did find out how many times it took for H to get through to S to remind him. It was quite comical and I laughed a lot the rest of that day.</p>
<p>Bethie,
That’s great! I’m always so excited if they call. We don’t call them unless we have to. We’re trying to give both girls their space, but I miss them a lot.
Limner, I love the post cards! My mom used to send me articles that she had highlighted. My room mate and I got a kick out of some of them. Especially when they didn’t even have a note attached!</p>
<p>Be careful what you wish for! My son (3 time zones away, on the West Coast) remembered it was Mother’s Day when it was still Mother’s Day for him, but was over with here on the East Coast. He wanted to make sure to wish me a Happy Mother’s Day, so he woke me up at around 2 AM my time to do it :eek:</p>