@JHS, amen to everything you said about dogs. My dog and I will be taking much longer walks.
@dansmoaustin , it’s bubble bath cries, actually. while commiserating with breakup song.
@stugate, that’s the flip side of this coin. My son admits to being nervous, but sad? Nah. In truth, I wouldn’t want him to be sad. It’s a wonderful part of growing up. You guys are in for such an experience. Enjoy!!
My youngest leaves ina few weeks for his senior year of college, and I am trying to avoid feeling like this last summer is…our last summer. Do stuff, enjoy yourself, blah blah blah I stand in my bathroom and cry once a week. So OP, I think we’ll be fine. I try to tackle large (distracting) projects, and spend time with him picking out apartment essentials stuff (I was very upfront — “you need stuff, I need to help – pick a category”)
But does grief for all the cool things we won’t do get me sometimes? Sure. But otoh, my oldest (a launched bird) called to see if I’d like to come with him on a business trip to a city I always wanted to see. Other, wonderful, things are ahead. Just keep swimming!
Start a game on your phone together (D and I do Words With Friends) that he can play back and forth with you occasionally but not have to “check in”. D took to playing her turn before she went to bed at night, so I knew she was in her dorm and it gave me a lot of comfort without “bugging” her.
@movemetoo, oooh!! Love that suggestion!
I am truly sympathetic, really I am. I can certainly see how traumatic this can be for a single parent with an only child. But… if we could just get our employed college graduate son to move out of the friggin house!!! my wife and I would live happily ever after!!! 
@Njres, :-j
It must be hard. When my son went away to college 2 years ago, it left a really big hole (I am married, so I had my wife), he is the kind of kid who really filled up our lives and home and such just be being himself. Even more so, because he was homeschooled and with music, we were involved in his life a lot, mostly driving him places and so forth, and waiting:).
That first couple of weeks I was surprised how much it hit me, I work long hours, so you would figure being at work I wouldn’t notice, but I really did. His bedroom is right next to ours in our house, and seeing the door open, not hearing him watching tv or playing a video game, was just like this big hole…
First of all, I think that you should be happy that you will miss him, that you have that kind of relationship, that isn’t necessarily that common, I know with my son, we also within the limits of being parent and child, are good friends who share things, and that that bond isn’t going anywhere.
Second thing is it will pass, and you will adjust to having the time and space. For me, IM helps a lot, we tend to IM each other things (especially sports stuff), but it also can be just silly things. We don’t talk on the phone much, but when we do that is fun, too. You will find a new rhythm and realize that you are now more like mentor and mentee (is that a word?), and that to me was special, too, because it meant he had grown as well.
The one thing I’ll tell you is don’t be afraid of those feelings, embrace them for what they are, the bittersweet aspects of your son growing up, and also appreciate them because that means you did everything you could as a mother, and he has mastered the basic techniques of tying his shoes and going to the bathroom by himself:). Seriously, don’t be afraid to feel the feelings, it is quite natural, as much as we wanted to kill them at times, like when my son got into the studio he got into and told us, seriously, that the guy did it just to be nice, but there is so much we shared that was special, and we remember that, and in a sense grieve for that period of life (forgetting, of course, the times he broke curfew, drank milk from the carton, got a mohawk, dated someone you didn’t like, you name it)…Want to know something special? The first time you see him, it will be like he never left, but you also will be marvelling and saying “wow, where did this incredible young man come from?”, and appreciate him even more:).
I remember feeling exactly that way when I was getting ready to go off to college a thousand years ago. 
and my gosh, it was a fun 4 years. You have such an adventure in front of you! I hope you’ll keep in touch with us CC parents if you have time.
I also hope you’ll do something that never even occurred to me at that point – be a little sensitive to how your parent(s) may be feeling as you get ready to leave. Just little things – a hug for no reason, an offer to help with the dishes, an unexpected “I love you” – stuff like means the world to us. And sometime between now and when you leave, be sure to give them a heartfelt thank you for everything they’ve done for you.
@musicprnt , Thanks so much. You made me cry.
@LasMa , this is turning into the “Let’s Make evermom Cry” thread.
Don’t worry, @LasMa, I’ll be the new @romanigypsyeyes of the parent’s forum. 
Don’t play words with friends with your kid unless the kid starts the game.
You need to find YOUR things to do that are separate from your son…not try to figure out ways to include him in different ways in your goings on.
We had an empty nest for the first time in 2006 when DD left for college. To quote the VP (a fabulous Jesuit who gave a speech during orientation)…“enjoy the next four years. More than 50% of college grads move back home for some length of time.”
It cracked the audience of parents up…but it was so true.
DD graduated in 2010, moved back home for 3 months…went into the Peace Corps, then moved back here where she has worked for three years. She leaves again next week for graduate school.
In the interim, we have learned to communicate and be involved with our kids in different ways. We Skype on their schedule…or FaceTime…or talk/text. I spent some time sending care packages to each…but really…they didn’t care about those.
But the most important thing I did was make sure their times at home during breaks were great…favorite foods, outings to at least one favorite place, etc.
This is a new time for both you and your son…and should be celebrated.
Whoa whoa whoa… I haven’t left yet. Ain’t nobody taking my place 
Hugs, evermom. It’s OK to cry.
I sent my only child off to college 6 years ago, and you’re bringing a lump to my throat too just remembering it. But I’m still here, living proof that this can be survived! You’re getting top-notch advice here, so I won’t add to it. Just remember two things: Let yourself feel what you feel. And begin to open your heart and mind to new things which can bring new meaning, purpose and passion to your life.
LOL stugace, romani’s right – no one can ever replace her! But I think there’s room for you too.
For what it’s worth, from a student’s perspective, most of us really do miss our parents even if we don’t always admit it. Sometimes, it’s just hard to really articulate that emotion especially when we’re told that we should go off to college and spread our wings (ie forget about home).
Daily Skype is way too much IMO but you will find the right balance. (I do apologize if this is a broken record- I only entered this thread because I got tagged.) If you have shared interests, that’s a good way to stay in contact. My mom and I rarely talked because neither of us are phone people but my dad and I would talk all the time because we’re both passionate about sports. We’d text if there was sports news and would sometimes call each other during games in order to celebrate or complain
I had kind of an interesting upbringing so my presence wasn’t super missed by my parents. (We’re very close we just led very separate lives.) However, I know that some of my friends’ single parents added a pet to their household in the summer before their child left. This was for two reasons. One- they hated coming home to a quiet, empty house and just having another presence there was comforting. Two- it was good motivation to get their kids to come home :). (Of course, only consider this if you have the desire, time, and patience for a pet!)
Totally agree…daily Skype is too much.
We asked our kids to contact us once a week when it was convenient for THEM.
We did a lot of texting back and forth (I’d usually wait for her to initiate it though). For us, it was a good way just to keep in contact on a regular basis, without being too intrusive.
One more note regarding having “scheduled” talking time: college is very unstructured. This is something that might come as kind of a surprise especially to parents who didn’t go to college. (As a first generation student, it took my parents a while to catch on to this.) While our lives in high school and after college are (usually) relatively structured with the same schedule week-to-week, that is not generally the case in college. Meeting times are often erratic, work schedules often vary from week to week, and given the fact that you live with your friends, plans can pop up out of nowhere. It can be hard to keep a set time every week to communicate and it can even be problematic.
Just something to keep in mind