<p>My d is doing nanny duty for my sister’s two kids this summer. Should be very low stress as they are 12 and 13 and just need someone around to monitor them and drive them places. It will be nice for her to spend time with them. She is very close to her one cousin and he will miss her terribly when she leaves. I just want her to make enough money to pay for her gas and entertainment this summer.</p>
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<p>Almost same here. S applied for an internship, but didnt get it. And because he is going to college for free, we didnt push him to get a summer job. But the things he does for fun are almost always academic; he is learning C++ now and is already on his 2nd book in French this summer. I do hope hell clean his room before moving out to college .</p>
<p>UT- that was lovely. For those of you that won’t continue posting, I wish you well. I will add that the 2014 parent thread is going strong. I accidentally started posting there back in January and have observed how much info and support they provide for each other as their students make their way through college, internships, first jobs, travel abroad, mishaps, alcohol incidents, and academic challenges. Having a cohort group seems to make it better, if not easier, as parents. So I hope many of you are here for the long haul.</p>
<p>And my now standard addendum. D still hasn’t graduated…I still hate this school.</p>
<p>Right there with you kinderny. One week from today!</p>
<p>We still have 2 wks to go. I find myself trying to navigate the world of sr parents and these cut days. First last week there was a sr. trip which most opted out of and then cut school. Then there was the day after prom, the traditional cut day. Now after that weekend, yesterday was the official “senior cut day” which my ds didn’t tell me - he just asked if he could not go to school and I went all postal on him, quoting the various memos school admin keep sending us telling us the state guidelines for attendance and threats about not receiving credit, not graduating, blablabla. Well, apparently I didn’t get the memo from the senior parents which tells you the true story. He was one of 2 seniors in school yesterday. And I feel like a meanie. He did come home and go straight to a pool party so, all is not lost. Everyone and I mean everyone, went to the shore for the entire weekend, apparently drunken adventures was part of the life of a sr this weekend. I didn’t get that memo either. I feel sometimes like I am on a special island of outcast parents. So, while the seniors are living it up, my dd (soph) is so overworked these past two weeks with her classes, not sleeping before 2 am most nights… She asks me last night “do you like me? I know I am not popular as ds or as funny as dd3 or athletic like dd2…” Oh god. Then ds comes up and says “You totally did weed, didn’t you? Come on, fess up! You totally did!!” I swear they are trying to break me.</p>
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Pardon me but I could not help laughing. I have had that thought before.
As for all the cutting, drinking etc. we have to be really careful at our house as H was a “wild child” which is classified info until D is 25 or in graduate school. Only my little, innocuous adventures are shared in order to help inform good judgement. D has no interest in drinking at peer parties, but does not want to be banned from going to them either. So she is upfront about which parties there will be drinking (and probably smoking) and we talk about how to handle the situations that could present themselves. So far she has made really good choices, but we talk about the consequences (both legal and parental) if she does not. </p>
<p>As for Senior Skip Day, that was yesterday. According to D the plans, despite weeks of dialogue, were the lamest ever. So she stayed home because she “had allergies” and she and H spent the day refurbishing the rectory of our church for the new priest that is arriving today. She worked hard, painting and scraping and taking things to the dump. Figured it was fine to miss her last English class which only had 1, ungraded project left to do.
PS When can I expect delivery of my new daughter(s)? ;)</p>
<p>(And D not graduated. I hate her school.)</p>
<p>Congrats to the new grads and thanks for the compass blessing UT. I may use that as my FB status at some point next week.</p>
<p>I, for one, hope we can either keep this thread afloat or start a new one for our rising College Freshman. As a soon-to-be empty nester, I’m not quite ready to cut the cord of parental support. Is everyone jumping ship??</p>
<p>Amandakayak,
We are still finishing up here too. Yesterday was senior cut day and my son was one of the few seniors that didn’t cut. I didn’t see how he could - he had part 1 of his physics II final. Apparently, that didn’t deter the rest of the class as there were only four kids there. I hope the teacher changes the test and makes it a bit harder, otherwise, the kids that cut actually have an advantage over the ones that stayed. The school policy is that if you have an unexcused absence all the work on that day, including tests, gets a zero. We’ll see if they enforce that. He has one final left - Calculus next Tuesday and the rest of the Physics one next Monday. Meanwhile kids are supposed to attend classes even though the grades are in and finals done. I don’t get it.</p>
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^ LOL, AvonHSDad!</p>
<p>kimdawg ~ Congrats to your D on all her twirling awards!</p>
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^ LOL, keylimepie, same here…</p>
<p>A student from DS’s school died last weekend, after she was hit by a car, riding her bike. Apparently she was wearing head phones and no helmet. How sad…</p>
<p>DS will take it easy as well this summer. In the past, he would spend one month per summer at an international piano festival, taking lessons and performing. He also would spend a few weeks at a math camp. This year, he will keep practicing, while taking a few lessons and will teach himself college material as much as possible. We will also visit my relatives.
Tomorrow is the award night at his school and Saturday the Prom. He has everything ready, except for the flowers.</p>
<p>New grad in our house! Graduation was yesterday and it was lovely. D was recognized at the senior awards breakfast which was nice. I got thorugh the entire day without a tear but then after she went to the overnght lock in, the tears started flowing…lots of pent up emotions…happiness, excitement for her, wistfulness, some sadness…wow!</p>
<p>AK - I too am trying to navigate the whole senior thing. I want them to have “safe” fun.</p>
<p>proudmomof2: Beautiful song!</p>
<p>kinderny: Hmmmmm…it gets stranger and stranger.</p>
<p>missypie: I just LOVE your parents COL adjustment. </p>
<p>UT: You will be missed! Stop by and check in with us from time to time.</p>
<p>Congrats to the newest grads and to those of you in the home stretch, hang in there.</p>
<p>AK: I admire your decision to have 4 children. My husband and I decided that we were maxed out with 2. </p>
<p>I must admit that I was more relaxed about senior cuts with D2. Our school basically told parents to write the notes so kids could leave after their finals because they weren’t doing anything. </p>
<p>I plan to hang in with all of you also. I have peeked at the Class of 2014 thread and the support they offer each other is wonderful. As we’ve said before, this is only the beginning.</p>
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<p>Well…if you did did you inhale? ;)</p>
<p>I’m working on the cooler weather thing, but I have no guarantees. Seems like it tookl forever for winter to go away here and now summer has come with great vegence. Record highs in the mid-90s here while we wait for the Missouri River to flood. </p>
<p>Yesterday, DS2 and I went to a luncheon for the local Mizzou Alumni chapter. They honored the seven students who will receive scholarships from the chapter. DS2 is not one of them; his scholarship came from the national alumni association. But the vice chancellor of research whom he had met on campus was the speaker and he wanted to hear him.</p>
<p>The vice chancellor remembered him, asked if he had been matched with a professor for his research fellowship yet. DS told him the name of of his mentoring professor and the vice chancellor had wonderful things to say about him. Then he introduced DS to his wife–also a professor at Mizzou. She is an adjunct in the Nuclear Sciene and Engineering Institute! She gave DS her card and said to call her when he got to campus because she frequently had small, short-term research projects that she gives to students. DS turned over her business card to see that she is also a guest scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.</p>
<p>Good luck to those of you still navigating school, finals, graduation and the visiting relatives. Best wishes to those in the orientation/class selection mode. In three months, we’ll all be in the same place–parents of a college freshman!</p>
<p>Got to vent here. Graduation (06/18) includes a $$$ dinner that books up early. I knew it would be the 4 of us (me, D, S, H) but not sure about H’s sister. I asked H weeks in advance of reservation deadline: can you find out if your sister will be coming for graduation? Because there’s a dinner and if she comes, we should include her in the dinner (instead of sending her home) but I need to know by (deadline) and once I pay for her, it’s non-refundable.</p>
<p>H said – don’t count on her – she’s notoriously flaky (which she is).</p>
<p>Now he tells me she’s coming, and if she wants to go to the dinner, he’ll stay home (meaning it would be me, S, D and my S-I-L). </p>
<p>I told him: I do not want to do that. I can just envision one of them (H or his sister) staging a big scene over this on D’s special day. Believe me, this is not the first time he’s done the passive-aggressive thing.</p>
<p>What would you do? Call S-I-L yourself and explain? Not my place? Try and talk to H (again)? Tell him loud and clear (again) that this is a family celebration and it would have been nice if S-I-L was part of it but it’s too late.</p>
<p>Aaargh!!!</p>
<p>Classof2015: Ohhh, you are in a tough spot. Any chance you can find someone who has an extra ticket that you might buy from them?</p>
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<p>I have finally broken and told D1 that if she wants to leave early or skip a day I will write her an excuse, as long as she does something useful at home. 13 days and counting.</p>
<p>I’m a little disappointed in her. By the time I was a senior in high school, I could forge my own parental notes. :D</p>
<p>Thanks Ohiomom24 – I will try.</p>
<p>I’m kicking myself for not buying the extra ticket. At $70, it would have been a cheap insurance policy against the drama and headache. After 25 years of marriage, I had a feeling something like this would happen.</p>
<p>Sorry for not checking in earlier, but it’s been crazy these last few days.</p>
<p>D is officially an unemployed high school graduate now 
Graduation was sat night - glorious day, but chilly, very chilly in the evening. Ceremony was at the football stadium and it seemed fine while the sun was out. As the sun went down, out came all the jackets and blankets. All the girls wore sundresses - so they were freezing! Spoiled our plan for pictures after - D stayed with her friends and H got pictures while I had to get my parents back to the van for some warmth. We got pictures with them and with us later on when it was almost dark (just before she returned her gown). Nice ceremony - not too emotional fortunately! Broke down and cried a bit when my parents described how wonderful it was to see her graduate - it’s a blessing they were able to come and be here. MIL passed away three years ago and H really missed her that night.</p>
<p>Feels funny to have everything over (almost everything - they are still playing in the state tournament - so she does go to school for practice and games!). Took her to the local credit union to get her a credit card this morning. She’s been busy writing all the thank you notes - for her scholarships and the graduation gifts she received last week. Will post some pictures on shutterfly sometime soon.</p>
<p>UT - don’t disappear completely - do stop in now and then and give us an update. I’ve followed the 2014/2013 threads before this and it does help to have a supportive group going. I hope most folks are planning to stick around…</p>
<p>aria - too sad to read about the girl who died while biking. Why won’t they learn??</p>
<p>missypie - incredibly cute COL adjustment by your parents!</p>
<p>Congrats to all the recent grads! Sounds like everyone got good weather and memorable moments.
There was talk of the sr’s having a cut day at S’s school followed by a stern warning online and in the weekly news from one of the deans that any senior cutting school will be disciplined appropiately. We told our S he is not participating and I don’t think there ever was a cut day. Kids who get detention at S’s school are handed a big trash bag, sent outside told to not return to bag is full. (or something similar) I have no doubt cutting school would have merited a harsher sentence.
Kathie- I am surprised that kids would actually cut on a test day.
Class of 2105 –Frustrating as it may be, I would phone SIL and ask. We had the graduation party at a restaurant and also needed a head count. We had to guess at whether about 40% of the folks invited were coming or not which worked out for us, because we were dealing with a larger group. But eating out with 4 is a lot different than 5 and restaurant may not be able to give you a bigger table if SIL shows up.
OWM – sounds like your S hit the jackpot. Hope the networking means lots of future research opportunities!
Lots of graduations coming up, wishing everyone great weather.
6/9: Mommylaw’s D, HighHead’s D, dandemom’s D, ldinCT’s S2
6/10-12: blueiguana, rom828, oregonianmom’s D, seattle_mom’s D, collegemaw’s D, rodney’s D, madbean’s S2, phbmom’s D2
OMG. How sad is right. So sorry.
OMom – S flies out to “preview” day next Monday where he will register for classes. I am looking forward to seeing his schedule. Looks like your D is going to be busy this fall.
Kindawg – our S is working a loving it. I expected him to work FT, H would have been happy with PT work. He loves having his own pocket money to buy what he wants, within reason, we expect him to have some savings when he goes back to school. I don’t think I could have afforded to give him all the pocket money he would have wanted if he had the entire summer off. I assume either next summer or the one after that he will be starting to intern for free so I push him to work while he can.
LOL. That is what memories are made of, and your kids are trying to make sure you have plenty to remember them by.<br>
Missypie – love your parents gift!
UT- you will be missed. Hope you will pop in occasionally. No one expects you to read and comment on everything!
Fog- S has a reading assignment for a book that will be part of some freshman group bonding exercise in August. Other than that he is free.<br>
S is having a ball since school let out. He is out with his friends almost every night, and has lots of concerts and activities planned for the summer. He met a girl at a relative’s confirmation party a few weeks back and has been seeing a lot of her. 
He was just invited to go see Taylor Swift with two girls he works with and is doing all kinds of things he normally wouldn’t have time or money for. He was mad at me for registering him for a defensive driving class next Sat. afternoon. I thought he would love learning how to get out of a skid, stop your car from tipping, etc. I even signed him up for the afternoon class knowing he likes to sleep late. Sigh…. I think I cut into his “free time!” I am really enjoying watching him enjoy himself. I am going to miss him :(</p>
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I’m a little disappointed in her. By the time I was a senior in high school, I could forge my own parental notes.[\quote] That reminds me of me! I admit that it’s a bit difficult to be the “enforcer” when I was such a trouble maker myself… more than two weeks of school still to go here. It’s really a shame, because there appears to be very little work to do (not that I’m complaining about no work, just that it’s a colossal waste of everyone’s time).</p>