<p>No movement here so far on son packing to return to school (Saturday). He is working through Friday, and has activities scheduled every evening. Room is complete chaos. Stuff from last year still in basement, also in chaos.</p>
<p>Note to self – Keep repeating – “Not my problem, not my problem, not my problem.”</p>
<p>before I even read the detail, I knew this involved a son, not a daughter…</p>
<p>Not only has my son not started packing, but the van in which they plan to drive back ON SATURDAY is still sitting on blocks in the driveway, with the engine in hundreds of pieces in the garage. The target is to have the engine back together and into the van by the end of Wed. night; we’ll see.</p>
<p>Wow mootmom, you definitely “win”! ;)</p>
<p>mootmom:
OK, now I feel a lot better. :eek:</p>
<p>It’s only Tues. He can get things done if he starts Friday afternoon. That’s what I’d do. Really! My whole family is like that. We still manage to get things done. My advice is to leave the house, do something fun: chill. Remind yourself that packing is his problem. If he ends up forgetting things or arriving late, those, too, will be his problems to solve.</p>
<p>Oh my gosh - same here! My son leaves week after next, but is in California all this week. His room remains in total chaos!</p>
<p>But I agree that mootmom wins this category!</p>
<p>okay, scary, RUSHING to rebuild an engine…forgot socks is one thing, but who wants to bet there will be some interesting pieces of metal sitting on that drvieway when car pulls away</p>
<p>don’t even want to thing about it</p>
<p>D is returning to school in exactly 1 week’s time. She is shipping most of her stuff this time…I don’t even see appropriate size boxes laying around yet. But mootmom takes the prize.</p>
<p>Our next door neighbor took her D back to college on Sunday. Rather than driving the older model family Honda, she rented a newer SUV for the trip. (Now that I think of it, they always rent a car to take their D to college–it is about an 8 hour drive from here.)</p>
<p>Just something for mootmom to keep in the back of her mind, just in case…</p>
<p>but them boys should pay for it…and I thought the undergarments all over the bedrooms were annoying</p>
<p>Oh mootmom you made my day. I needed a good chuckle. As a mother of three boys and wife of a male, I know the cry so well…all I hear in my house is “mom, don’t worry, I’ve got time, it’ll get done… hon, don’t worry it will happen, quit stressing so much.” What I can’t figure out is how I got the male dog and the male cat to boot. Whatever did I do in life to deserve all this testosterone?</p>
<p>Defiinitely a guy thing! S1 is leaving Friday–nothing is packed (except stuff we stashed from the spring in basement). On the flip side, D leaves NEXT Friday–she’s almost completely packed!!</p>
<p>D is flying back for 2nd year next Thursday. All but two suitcases and what was stored at school will be shipped UPS. If she wants her shipment to arrive the same day she does, it will have to go out by this Friday. Not a thing has been done as far as packing goes.</p>
<p>Even on my son’s Stanford trip Sunday, we had to leave at 5:00 am, so he needed to be packed the night before. At least that was the ideal. The reality: son gets up just a little before 5 and STARTS packing! Grrrr…</p>
<p>Son flew out to school with husband today. Having such a laugh reading this, if only I had seen it yesterday. 10PM last night I was yelling at my son to get his duffles packed, finally he threw books, cd’s neatly folded clothing, etc in haphazardly. I lost it when I found he had put all the heavy items on top of the dress clothing he needs for upcoming wedding. When I finally fished out the by now crumpled outfit , discovered dress pants husband went with him to buy were 32W 30L instead of the otherway around! Made him try them on, are up to his ankles and can fit an additional person in the waist. Son and husband are telling me they are fine, “will do the job”. So, soon their plane will land,
and oblivious son and husband will do the last minute shopping before dorm move in tomorrow. I’m scared…</p>
<p>The plus side of not packing until the last minute is that you don’t have piles of bags and boxes invading your living space!</p>
<p>Another also-ran in this category, which has clearly been <em>aced</em> by mootmom. S has done just as little as all the other S’s (and some D’s), just as little as he had done by this time last year. The difference is, this time I know it’ll get done. Just not my way. :D</p>
<p>Of course, last year his rushed packing meant he left behind the PowerPak for his computer, which he claimed <em>I</em> forgot. Not! Having listened to that famous boy refrain of “Chill, mom. I’ve got it under control”, I had given up on helping him pack and knew this was not my problem. He had to order another one by FedEX to the tune of $100+ (out of his pocket, btw). </p>
<p>My entry into the second-runner-up category to mootmom is that S’s two bags shipped from New Orleans when he left Tulane on July 1 just arrived YESTERDAY! Only took 52 days and just about as many phone calls. But they did get here in time for him to paw through, pull out the dirty laundry and re-pack for the JHU departure.</p>
<p>My D started packing last night at 9:00. She planned to depart at 10:30 this morning. During the past week I had made a few “suggestions” about putting together some piles of what she was taking to school. They were ignored. She said that she had it all under control. Last night after dinner I officially became a nag.</p>
<p>As I went to bed she was far from done. My little lecture for the AM was composed as I lay in bed before falling asleep. </p>
<p>When I went downstairs this morning to make the coffee her gear was neatly packed and waiting by the door. Darn. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I’m leaving for school on Saturday, and I’ll probably pack on Friday evening. I don’t really have much to do, basically just clothes. Laptop takes 10 seconds, speakers and printer still packed away from last year. Most of my stuff from last year is still in the stuff it came home in, so it’ll just go back into the car.</p>
<p>
Fatal thinking error on the part of us over 40 (or over 50) parents: the concept that the wee hours of the night and morning might be devoted to sleep.</p>