I have been know to be on campus 3-4x a week. The definition of on campus is pretty loose though. This was my schedule for the last week.
Sunday: picked up DD at a mock trial competition in a town about an hour away, drove her to her club field hockey game and then drove her 45 minutes back to her dorm. Stopped on the way back at the market to get her secret Santa gift, food for dorm room and dinner. Drove over to my DS dorm on campus to drop off his secret Santa gift for dorm exchange. He met me at the car window and asked if we could go for a drive because “he missed me”. Despite having hours of work at home, I said of course and we spent 20 minutes driving around dark roads, listening to music and admiring holiday lights.
Monday: picked up DS on campus to head to oral surgeon appointment as we were hoping to get wisdom teeth out over break. Then headed to his Orthodontist to pick up his last set of retainers.
Wednesday: drove to campus to bring my daughter her new glasses- we debated whether to ship to her at school- but decided to send to our house in case they didn’t arrive before break. Stopped on the way to get DD,DS and daughters fiends mcflurrys at Macdonalds.
Today( Saturday) will head up to campus to bring DS best friend his gift for dorm secret Santa. The PO on campus will be closed when it arrives late this afternoon- so when I got a late night call from him asking if his friend could ship it here- of course I said yes.
Yes, I do a lot of driving, yes I realize my kids could plan better, I could cram in appointments over break, I could say no to letting my daughter play in a club field hockey league etc… But I remind myself every time that I have “done” this boarding school life very different (when I lived 2500 miles away from my oldest 2). The reason I moved across the country to live 45 minutes from campus, was to live it exactly the way I am.