<p>MaryOC - Son’s school signs students up for $900 annual medical insurance UNLESS they receive a signed waiver that they have comparable insurance.</p>
<p>OWM - I absolutely could envision the scene this morning at your house. Why do our brains know to figure this stuff out in advance and theirs doesn’t? I don’t get it. Enjoy your day.</p>
<p>Congrats to this weekend’s grads. Stay cool.</p>
<p>Do any of you know anything about online marketing? How to successfully use web sites, FB & Twitter to advertise a business. If so could you PM me. Thanks.</p>
<p>Thanks for chiming in on the student insurance, Mamom and FlMathMom. It is probably easier for them to administer the plan by assigning it to everyone up front, and removing only those students who bother to provide proof of other, primary coverage. There’s a finite period of time, in which, to make the update, too. Just imagine how many folks overlook that detail… or figure it out too late to be reimbursed.</p>
<p>Did a little shopping today to stockpile cleaning and toiletry items for college dorm. When I returned, my husband laughed at me. He swears our son will get beat up because I made a first aid kit and small tool kit for him to stow under his bed or way back in his closet. We’re talking Band Aids, Neosporin, alcohol wipes, Tylenol, Advil Cold & Sinus, etc. - and a hammer, pliers, wrench, philliips head & regular screwdrivers…duct tape, scissors and a glue gun 
They’ll appreciate me when I’m gone.</p>
<p>Whatta you want to bet he is happy and grateful that dear old Mom thought to provide all that stuf when someone inhis dorm is in some kind of crisis at</p>
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<p>Certainly works for me. ;)</p>
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<p>We are with you except for the glue gun and a different choice in cold meds. D and I were just talking about it today and figuring out how many flat rubbermaid bins she needs/can use under the bed.</p>
<p>Actually, you probably won’t need the flat rubbermaid bins. Most dorm beds just have mattresses (no box springs), so you should be able to fit bigger bins underneath a dorm bed. In D1’s freshman dorm, the mattress had different settings, so we were able to raise the mattress. Then we added bed risers and she had tons of space under the bed. Target has great stackable plastic drawers and she stacked these and put extra clothes inside. If your kid has orientation during the summer, try to check out the dorm rooms to figure out how to best utilize the space.</p>
<p>MOSB and Emmybet: It sounds like your both have great relationships with your daughters.</p>
<p>My daughter has returned home safely from senior week! I’m breathing a sigh of relief, but I know it’s only temporary.</p>
<p>MaryOC – Please read the school’s plan carefully. Son’s school’s plan is not very good. For example, each accident or disease had a $100,000 max. G-d forbid something major happens, how many days in a hospital would that cover?</p>
<p>FlMathMom… we are not accepting the school’s health insurance policy. We have coverage of our own.</p>
<p>My beef is they sign everyone up as a general rule, and ask students to go in and provide proof of other coverage to receive the waiver credit in his/her school account, rather than enroll only those interested students.</p>
<p>Kinderny… Slightly larger than shoebox-sized Sterilite bins (with snap lock covers) were on sale for under $2 at Target. They were the perfect size for my make-shift first aid and tool kits. I snagged extra tools from my DH’s tool chest, and most of the first aid supplies from existing stock at home.</p>
<p>You can purchase a pre-made first aid kit for about $10 at practically any pharmacy or department store. It contains mostly sample-sized quantities and single doses - perfect for that one or two times they * may * need to haul it out.</p>
<p>I know there is a clinic on campus, but just in case he or a friend becomes sick/uncomfortable in the wee hours… I also added some hydrocortizone cream, Pepto Bismol, Immodium, saline spray, cough drops, Gold Bond powder, Antifungal/athlete’s foot cream, a tube of Icy Hot (he’s a big physical guy), and a pair of tweezers.</p>
<p>MaryOC – what a great idea. I, too, will keep D on our plan (vs the one from the school) but I didn’t think of the first aid kit. Might just throw in some candy too (in case of emergency).</p>
<p>We have probably 3 homemade first aid kids left over from boy scouts needed for various merit badges. I sent one to college with older son and it looked like it wasn’t even opened. Of course, if I don’t send one with younger son it will be needed!</p>
<p>It’s finally starting to feel like the end of HS. Son has Baccalaureate tomorrow, his last two finals Monday and Tuesday, a day at local amusement park after one final, a grad party and perhaps the birthday Segway ride in Philly, oh and graduation Friday. My daughter is coming home late Tuesday night but has already made plans to 1) go to the beach with HS friends 2)Spend the weekend in NYC with friends up there. I think I have dibs on one full day with her! My folks are coming up Thursday or Friday too, so someone is going to get kicked out of their bedroom.</p>
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I think you’re right, Emmy, and that starts happening with some kids even in high school.</p>
<p>I guess what I meant was that a small percentage of parents and kids (and I really do think this is unique to single parent/single child families) have a different kind of dynamic that lends itself to continuing higher than typical amounts of contact and daily life-sharing in college and beyond.</p>
<p>Especially when they are very temperamentally well suited, there is a particular type of focus and intimacy that isn’t present…really can’t be present…in multi-parent/multi-child families.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to imply that other kinds of parents and kids aren’t close. But with no marriage dynamics in the mix, no other child dynamics in the mix, and no sibling dynamics in the mix, the relationship is quite different, and I expect that to be true with the college chapter of life, too.</p>
<p>Congrats to another weekend of new graduates!</p>
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<p>Got through the grad party last night. The weather gods answered our prayers. The tent was sent up by 930 AM and the sky opened up from 10 to about noon. By 2 pm is had stopped and the temp dropped to the hi 60’s - low 70’s. We finished setting up with some sun. The caterer showed up and set up his grills and looked at the black clouds rolling in and said, uh-oh, this doesn’t look good. Radar showed two large red blobs just south of us and another north over the lake (Erie). Somehow, the winds kicked up for a few minutes but then settled down and we never got a drop of rain! Best parts of the event - the vollyball net - the kids played for over two hours; the corn hole sets (2), again lots of competition; and finally, the fire pit and s-mores. We guessed the final headcount and got it close as we ended up with one piece of chicken and about a half tray of ribs. The last piece of cake went to DD’s BF’s dad who came to drive him home. The only thing we overestimated was the soft drinks for the kids and the beer and wine for adults. Looks like the house is stocked for the summer! May have to have another party! 
S was shocked by the gifts he received. He will be writing thank you notes on the plane tomorrow and probably on the way home as well.</p>
<p>New thread - perhaps July 1st is a nice clean cutover date. Just a thought if that is the direction this is going.</p>
<p>I’m going offline for a couple of weeks as we are heading out on our combination summer vacation cruise and graduation and family celebration trip tomorrow. I don’t even want to think of how many pages I will be behind when we gat back at the end of the month. :eek:</p>
<p>Future congrats to all of the remaining graduates to be and future award winners!</p>
<p>MaryOC, My two older kids go to school in Massachusetts where there is a law that you must take the schools insurance and there is a mandatory supplementary insurance as well. You are able to waive the secondary insurance if you have your own, (we have done this) but you are not allowed to waive the primary school insurance. The school has Medical Center and Medical School so we have found that in the end its a good thing to have and my two older kids have taken advantage of it. </p>
<p>Not sure what the insurance is for my daughter going to Uni in the fall. Need to go over papers now that the madness has calmed down around here.</p>
<p>Avon - have a great trip!</p>
<p>Avon, what is a corn hole? Your party sounds fabulous! I think it’s much better to have more drinks then food left over, drinks will keep for longer.</p>
<p>I’m confused about my son’s college insurance. From the paperwork we received, it looks like it’s mandatory but on the website it mentions a waiver being allowed. Since we’re not planning to take him off our family policy, we’re not real happy about having to pay for a school policy as well. We thought that it was a Vermont thing since they have state health insurance for everyone. I think I will call them up early next week.</p>
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<p>I’m not Avon–and I think he’s off on a cruise–but a corn hole is a bean bag toss type of game. Bean bags, a board with holes in it. Different holes have different point totals. Toss the bags into the hole. Very popular at tailgating parties here in the Midwest, along with washers and yard golf.</p>
<p>Avon’s party sounds like so much fun! For both of our sons’ parties, I have splurged and bought Jones Soda and put it in a cooler marked “For Graduating Seniors Only.” It was a big hit. We also had beer and wine left over. I think parents chose to drink the lemonade and peach tea rather than drink alcohol at a party with kids.</p>
<p>That yard game Avon mentioned (Corn Hole?)is extremely popular here (West of Chicago), but here it’s called Bags.</p>
<p>Have a safe and fun trip, Avon! I’m glad that the weather gods were kind to you.</p>
<p>DD1’s school in Ohio allows us to waive the school insurance; haven’t received anything on this from DD2’s school in Texas but we’ll be there in a couple of weeks for orientation so I’m sure they’ll cover this (what else are they going to talk to the parents about for 2 days except details like this?)</p>
<p>I’ve come to the conclusion that cornhole is a Midwest thing; I had never seen it before I moved here from TX and my in-laws from PA saw it for the first time at DD’s grad party. My older D says it’s popular because you can play while holding a beer in one hand.</p>
<p>I put together a small first aid kit for DD1 for her first year in college. Most of it went untouched except the Advil and Dayquil/Nyquil. I’ll probably put one together for DD2 but it will be very basic.</p>
<p>I also vote for July 1st as the kick-off date for our new thread. I don’t have any clever ideas for the name but I do think the final post here should be “Our Ss and Ds have all graduated and we all still hate Kinderny’s D’s school!” (just a thought…lol)</p>
<p>Son and friendship. Last week after my S’s graduation, I asked him if we could be friends on FB. He said no and the excuse was " don’t friend with parents on FB because they can control your life". LOL.</p>
<p>Just realized I hadn’t checked in for over two weeks. Sounds like everyone is graduated and firmly on track for college, with ever-more awards and honors. Congratulations to all!</p>
<p>On the all-important issue of dorm storage, I saw something wonderful at the UChicago bookstore - bed-leg stands (I don’t know the real name for them) that raise the height of the bed about 6". I intend to invest in a set so that we can ge the biggest storage boxes possible - they may never get used, but at least I will have tried. </p>
<p>My new 4Runner (replacing the one I wrecked) is now proudly displaying a UChicago sticker, together with the Grateful Dead Stealie sticker that no vehicle of mine is ever without. I’ve never put anything other than a Stealie sticker and political bumperstickers on a car, but the UChicago sticker looks right at home. I may put one on my horse trailer, too, but will have to check with the other owner (I truly do not think she could deal with a Grateful Dead sticker).</p>
<p>Is anyone from the Chicago area going to the Pitchfork concerts?</p>
<p>I think that the “bed-leg-stands” that UT mentioned are called bed risers. They sell them at BB and B and Target. They are a must for a dorm room unless you are lofting the bed.</p>
<p>We checked the website for my D’s school (in Mass) and we can submit a waiver to use our own medical insurance in place of the school’s. We do have to pay a required fee to cover the use of the student health center. My older’s D school has the same policy. </p>
<p>Proudmom: I love your idea for our final post on this thread! We have cornhole here in MD. My collegegrad nephew has a set.</p>