My S's roommate is Pigpen

mystery2me
Sat, 15 Nov 2008 11:22:06 +0000

bbkitty, S’s school had roommate matching and he put down “messy”, appropriately I thought; I was very surprised when he turned out to have the reputation (even in a 4-person sophomore suite) of being the “neat” one. His situation was probably better than that of your son’s because he and his freshman roommate were similar on many dimensions and became good friends. I’m a fan of roommate matching when kids are honest–it helps avoid the total mismatches, even if definitions differ somewhat. D’s school doesn’t have roommate matching, and she and her roommate aren’t well-matched at all, but they are co-existing in part because they negotiated the big issues and D is good about talking to her about noncompliance. D does vent to me, however, so hopefully there is some measure of venting to a parent in your son’s complaints. I agree with everyone else who says guiding him to a strategy for handling it himself will serve him well in the long run.