We’ve rounded up a few items that families frequently forget to pack for the dorm move-in. What other items are often forgotten? https://www.collegeconfidential.com/articles/parents-dont-forget-these-items-as-you-pack-for-college/
The “kitchen junk drawer” stuff they take for granted - tape, scissors, screwdriver, stapler, post-it notes, stamps, envelopes. Thread and needle (and the ability to sew a button back on).
Most stuff can easily be bought at the new location or ordered off Amazon, Target, Walmart, etc. Don’t sweat and create anxiety by worrying about every little detail.
A lot of stuff can be borrowed from dorm mates, too, which can be a good way to meet people. 
For move in, I recommend a door stop (packed in a very accessible place) and a tape measure. The former keeps the door open while you’re schlepping stuff in and then makes it easy to keep it open to meet people. The latter allows you to measure heavy furniture to see if it makes sense to move it before you lug it across the room.
But I completely agree that most stuff can be bought online and delivered really quickly and given the size of dorm rooms, having too much stuff is really a burden, from the challenges it can create with roommates to the hassle of keeping it neat.
The recommendation for the medical power of attorney makes no sense. So you have a completed POA and it is filed with your primary care doc and there is a copy in the glove compartment in her car. How is that going to help you on the phone with the ER? YOU need the document and then you need to be able to get a copy to the ER (phone, text, fax). But that only helps if they determine that your daughter is incompacitated.
You keep it on your phone, ready to email or upload to secure site. If student is unconscious or in surgery and parent calls to get info, medical personal won’t talk to you without HIPAA release, which is usually incorporated into medical POA. Or student can just pre-sign a universal HIPAA release that parent keeps on phone.
Isn’t there another thread someplace about things folks didn’t remember to take to their college?
Really…my kid was in the Peace Corp is a not quite developed country…and even there…there were stores. I can’t think of any essential that you would leave behind that you couldn’t get if needed (even prescriptions can be filled).
We had another thread on things kids take and never use…my guess is the things left behind and the things never used have some overlap!
The suggesting in the article was not to keep it on the parents’ phones, but to put a copy in the car’s glove compartment. That’s what I thought was silly. My pediatrician told me not to bother giving a POA to the daycare/after school care or even listing the doctor’s/dentist’s numbers on a medical forms. She said she’d seen too many times when after an accident at the school the care providers look for the forms, waste time calling the doctor’s office, calling parents, etc. She said to write on the forms Call 911 instead of putting the doctor’s numbers on the form because she couldn’t do anything anyway.
If the example of the kid playing soccer and needing to go to the ER, the kid is either unconscious and the ER will treat her or she’s conscious and she’ll either be able to give permision to talk to the parents or agree to her own treatment.
Agree. Writer of the article got it wrong. You need it on your person, not in the car.
I think the medical POA is more useful for enabling parents to talk to the doctors/nurses. As in the example in the article, if your 18+ kid is in emergency surgery and you are 400 miles away and call the hospital for info, they’ll tell you to get lost. If you have the medical POA or HIPAA release, you can fax it or email it over to them along with a photo of your driver’s license.
Hm. Our S19 signed a HIPAA release at his pediatrician’s office. Is that one good enough if something happens to him at school? Or do we need a “universal HIPAA form”? And how do we find something like that? Does it have to be notorized?
You need something universal. Most states have free downloadable health care power of attorney forms. Usually they need to be witnessed but not necessarily notarized.
@momofsenior1 So one for home state and one for college state? No way to just have one? What if they travel for a sport and could be in multiple states? Seems complicated. Maybe I’ll call his school and see if they have any advice.
Other states should recognize your home state’s DPOHC.
I’m my mom’s agent and her form is from OH but now she lives in FL. I have no issue when she’s hospitalized.
Remember too that you are next of kin for your child and in an emergency, health providers want to reach you!
Schools will have forms for their own health clinics to talk to you (like an MD’s office HIPPA forms).
My DS drives himself back and forth to school which is about 5 hours. DH, DS and I all have his paperwork on our phones. We do not assume he would be at school when it might be needed.
No. That’s only on TV soap operas. Rules of consanguinity do not apply for release of medical information or for making medical decisions on one’s behalf if the patient is not a minor. Consanguinity is legally applicable only in determining heirs and in certain prohibitions, such as certain marriages and jury participation.
@Cheeringsection “his paperwork” …what exactly is it? HIPPA by state? I don’t know why I’m struggling with this. I don’t get it. I see forms online but they all ask you to fill in WHO you asking to release the info (like a certain hospital or doctor). The only one we’ve filled out so far is at our pediatrician. And my understanding is that is just for her to give us S19’s info if we request it. It didn’t seem universal even to the state we live in.
She’s referring to the HIPAA release and/or medical power of attorney. It is most important for the agent – that’s YOU – to have the “paperwork” on your phone. You are the one who will be calling the ER and saying, that’s my son you’ve got there, I’m his designated agent, and I can email you the signed paperwork to prove it.
What your son filled out at his pediatrician’s office is just for that office.
Now, note that some medical facilities will talk to parents (or adult children of elderly patients) without the signed release or POA. They have the option to do that if they feel, in their judgment, that they should and that they patient won’t file a complaint about it when he comes to. But they do not HAVE TO talk to you and often will not. Better to have the signed documents so you don’t have to rely on the whims of the person you speak to on the phone.
@homerdog - the execution requirements for health care powers of attorney are pretty similar for most states, so if you had one done up in your state, it would probably be OK in Maine. That said, though, you might want to search for a Maine HIPAA release form. Sometimes state or county bar associations have guidebooks or sample living wills you can find online.
My friend’s brother was taken to the hospital recently, in a coma. He never regained consciousness but lived for 2 weeks. The hospital had no problem talking to her and her sister (both parents dead for a long time), the doctors met with them and let them make all decisions, including when to stop medical care. The women hadn’t seen their brother in 5+years (my friend just happened to run into him 2 days before this and had learned where he lived). They didn’t have anything listing them as POA, next of kin, living at the same address. Nothing.
They were wary of claiming any legal guardianship of him because they needed him to qualify for medicaid. Hospital didn’t make them sign anything and I think were glad just to find someone who cared.