<p>S1 is a rising senior (college) and my wife sends him care packages about once every other week (he is in Ca and we in the Midwest). I have calculated that she has spent almost $1000 on usps priority shipping alone in the past 3 years. S has worked a research fellowship every summer so we only see him for 3-4 weeks in August/September and over Christmas break. My wife occasionally mentions that it seems S doesn’t appreciate it (i think he does just doesn’t say it). I told her to stop sending them if she feels that way. But I know she won’t, I think it makes her feel a little closer to him to take the time to assemble the items and pack and ship them (she often shows me how much she can pack into one small usps box). </p>
<p>Is my wife the only one that does this or is it a common practice? </p>
<p>(I have a feeling it tapers off after first few months in college.)</p>
<p>I send one a trimester, so that’s three over the school year. Every other week sounds a little much, especially if he’s not appreciative. But he’s probably not as appreciative because they’re so common at this point.</p>
<p>I have only sent a few in the 2 years that my son has been away but he has come home 3 or 4 times each year. He just doesn’t need more stuff or more junk food. Even though he seems very appreciative, I have noticed that he usually has leftovers at the end of the semester. I guess that he is not very good about sharing!</p>
<p>I have twins who are rising seniors (college). I’ve never sent them care packages, and last I checked, we still all love each other. :)</p>
<p>I’m not saying my kids wouldn’t like it — I’m sure they would. But the obvious things to put in there would be junk food, and I don’t like to encourage that. What else? Money? I’m paying for their college educations; 'nuff said.</p>
<p>That leaves non-food tchotchkes. Waste of money, and they don’t have the space in their tiny college apartments for more junk.</p>
<p>I think care packages are okay to send, but why send them frequently? Once a year is enough. After that, appreciation plummets geometrically.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t want random junk sent to me, so why would my kids? They live in small spaces. I have a friend who sent my twins a whole Dr. Seuss “Thing 1 and Thing 2” bunch of stuff (because they are twins) - mugs, keychains, pads of paper, etc. It was a kind thought, but what are they going to do with this crap? </p>
<p>The things I have sent are generally consumables (whether food or a personal toiletry item). They just don’t need stuff.</p>
<p>Most of what wife sends are consumables, but very little junk food (beef jerky is only thing i would classify as junk food), S1 won’t eat it (a type I diabetic that watches his diet closely). But no doubt some of what she sends takes up room that he doesn’t have (although he has a single room this summer and next year). She also sends stuff like contact solution, gift cards ( Panda Express, Subway, …) (usually only one of these per month or so (which I undestand as they have to fend for themselves for food on weekends and in summer)), tooth paste (??? don’t know why), … I think in the end after having been there to send him to school every morning and being there when he got home every evening she has found her way to keep that feeling. :)</p>
<p>I don’t send random stuff but kids might not agree.
Around finals I sent stuff they like to have when studying. Chewing gum, protein bars, chocolate. I will order things to be sent to them, I sent older D an automatic tea kettle when I noticed she was still using the same (drippy) plastic one she had as a freshmen over ten years ago, and after a big rainstorm, knowing that younger D has to ride her bike to work I sent her an extra pair of my rain pants.
But every other week sounds like a hobby, and an expensive not very fulfilling one at that.
With an Amazon Prime acct you can send packages as often as you want for about $70 a year.</p>
<p>I send random themed junk. In the fall, for instance, I sent a string of paper skeletons, which ds and roommate really appreciated and decorated their dorm room door. They loved it. Just little junk like that. I think it’s fun. I usually send some kind of healthy food and junk food to share with the floor, which is big at his school. I also send copies of sports sections that I think he might like, or the Sunday comics. Just a bunch of silly stuff.</p>
<p>Fun, Youdon’tsay. I would love to get that kind of thoughtful care packages. My mom sent similar such stuff a million years ago when I was an exchange student.</p>
<p>DS lives across the country and only comes home for Christmas and summer. So I send packages at Thanksgiving, his birthday and Easter. Usually food and enough to share if he chooses to.</p>
<p>I get that kind of stuff - it’s disposable! The kid decorates for Halloween, and then throws it away. The stuff I’m thinking about is more “hard goods” that the kid then has to figure out how to store.</p>
<p>I sent home-baked goods about once a month last (freshman) year. When I’d bake at home, the extras would get tossed in the freezer and would eventually make their way into a care package. D1 shared generously. I regarded this as being sort of a group care package for the entire floor. </p>
<p>Lack of gratitude/enthusiasm would make me ramp down.</p>
<p>My DD school actually had care packages that you were guilted into buying, yes I fell for it. They were delivered when they kids first arrived at college, finals week, valentine’s day and sometime in the fall. My DD liked them but said she didn’t like all the stuff in them and felt I probably was wasting my money. I did send her Subway and McDonalds gc a couple of times throughout the year too. She will be a sophomore and I am definitely not getting the care packages from the school but may send her the occasional gc just so she can have a change from the regular cafeterias. I like to let her know I am thinking of her. She comes home about once a month.</p>
<p>I sent my just-graduated D two care packages per quarter - one for mid-terms and one for finals. Very little was junk food (Except for some gum and M&M’s - her preferred go-to snack when she was studying.) </p>
<p>Instead, I tried to send useful or cute gifts that I knew she would appreciate, especially when she was stressed-out from exams: highlighters and post-it notes in cool colors (she has an office-supply fetish). Gift cards to a local pizza place that delivered late-night. Trashy magazines for a study break. Maybe an occasional gift card to the movies (so she could celebrate when she was done.) You know - stuff that was significant to her that would let her know we were thinking of her during a stressful time.</p>
<p>Sometimes I just wrote her goofy poems. I know she loved it all, because I often saw pictures of those packages on Facebook.</p>
<p>I sent rare care packages: a few when he was in England for 6 months on foreign study (fall when he needed a few US items, Christmas, and his Feb birthday) and one other time when he didn’t make it home around his birthday. Sometimes a valentine box, but really small.</p>
<p>I sent my D, arising college sophomore, 3 or 4 care packages last year w/ snacks, toiletries and decorations for whatever holiday was coming up. She was in a suite-style dorm and she and her suitmates loved to decorate for holidays (Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day) I think I sent her a prepackaged care package (or 2) as well, one of which was a fundraiser for a student group. The last homemade package I sent was for finals, and I included a funny book “F in Exams” with hilarious real (?) answers people answered on tests. She expressed her appreciation (usually via text) & I’m proud to say that some of my better packages made it to her FB page and/or twitter feed :)</p>
<p>We’ve sent one in the two years our daughter has been at school. I don’t like sending junk food or other cute items she doesn’t need. If I knew of practical items to send, I might be inclined to do it more often.</p>
<p>When DS was a college student, we sent him a package a couple of times per semester.</p>
<p>Quite often, if it was not food that would spoil, he would not open it even after a whole month. At one time, when we helped him move out at the end of the spring semester, we noticed one package that we had sent him two months ago was still not opened. Computer-related stuff tends to be in this category as it may require some setup and/or troubleshooting which DS may not be willing to do. (Hmm…I still do not know whether the small laser printer that I sent to him 3 months ago is working or not. Sometimes I hope we have the exactly same computer setup at home, except for the networking part, as what he has at school so we could try it out successfully at home before we send it to him. The setup of computer hardware/software could be quite a hassle if you do not do this on a regular basis.)</p>
<p>Sometimes it is more about parents’ need than the child’s need! Been there, done that myself.</p>
<p>Almost never - maybe Halloween and a birthday or finals. If they ask for something specific, I might fill the blank spaces with candy they like. They don’t like decorations.</p>
<p>Freshman year I sent my older son Nutella and bread (which he loved at home). Apparently it was too much to bother with at school - when I picked him up the bread was moldy and the Nutella had never been open. That was pretty much the end of care packages for him!</p>
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