<p>DS will not have much time to visit with me over Parent’s Weekend but I’ve known that since the beginning. I will get there late Friday night and he will be busy all morning prepping for the game on Saturday (team breakfast, pre-game meetings, etc), then the game from 1-4 or thereabouts. Then he needs to shower, etc afterwards. I will see him for dinner on Saturday and we’ll hang out for a bit afterwards. I expect that he’ll sleep in on Sunday morning but if not, then we can go to brunch before I head back home. I won’t register for any events because I want to stay flexible.</p>
<p>Basically Parent’s Weekend will be just like every other weekend when he has a home game and my DH goes to watch. DH flies in on Saturday morning, heads to the parent tailgate and then watches the game. Then he has dinner with DS and they hang out for a bit before DS goes out for the evening and DH goes to bed (oh the hours of a college student!). DH then flies out Sunday morning to wherever he happens to be going for work that week (Portland, OR this week I think).</p>
<p>We are not going to the parents/homecoming weekend. The only event we were really interested in, a Bill Cosby appearance, sold out quickly and it’s on a Thursday which is not convenient for folks who work and have younger kids in HS. Also, our daughter wants to come home for her Columbus Day long weekend, and this homecoming is the very next weekend. </p>
<p>However, I am driving out to visit her tomorrow morning. There’s a fundraising sale on campus I want to attend, and mostly as my friend put it: I want to lay eyes on her. We’ll do some off-campus eating and some shopping, and there’s a local museum she wants to visit. It will all be things that we want to do, not what the college guessed we might want to do. </p>
<p>This last weekend was parents/homecoming weekend at Rice, and we went to visit our S, but we didn’t go to any of the planned events. We let him show us around campus, then we took him out to eat lunch, and then we took him shopping at various stores to buy things he wanted/needed. It all took most of the day Saturday. Then the next day we visited him at his room for an hour or so and then left town. He got out of it what he wanted and we got what we wanted. That worked for us.</p>
<p>S is coming home this weekend! Well, he’s going to his Dad’s actually- he’s going to come to my house NEXT weekend. He’s coming home 3 weekends in a row, but I think that’s ok. </p>
<p>I’m jealous that you guys have to go to Parents weekend. We can’t. Being my D is on the opposite coast, the schedule and the expense is not in our favor. My younger D already missed more than a week of school days when we dropped D to college. We don’t want her to miss another 2 or 3 days.</p>
<p>@2018dad, same problem here. It seems like we just dropped him and he’ll come home for Thanksgiving. The parent weekend is mid-October but just isn’t workable. S14 said he doesn’t mind, but I hope he doesn’t feel disappointed when the time comes.</p>
<p>I don’t think we’ll register. We’d like to go to the football game and see DD march with the band, and they’ll have a concert immediately after. Maybe dinner out, and then home. We’re close by so that makes the whole weekend much more low key .</p>
<p>For those not going, we never went for DS’11 and he didn’t seem to care at all. I haven’t even ask DS’14 if he wants us to come or when he’ll be available to visit, but he’s under 3 hours drive, so we are planning on going at least for a short visit. </p>
<p>Because my wife’s mother died in the week before move-in she never got to say a ‘formal’ goodbye to our son and has actually never seen the campus (which is 3,000 miles away). So she’ll go to parents’ weekend, mostly to visit him, but also to see the school that will be receiving a quarter-million of our dollars over the next four years. The minimal program of events that the school has scheduled belies the fact that they see it mostly as an opportunity for parents to visit their kids.
I’m of course jealous, as I really miss him.</p>
<p>We are probably the last parents here to move S in! It was so easy and fast at UCLA. We pulled into a parking garage, kids pushed 3 bins up to our van, we filled the bins and three movers loaded them on the a flatbed truck, then a shuttle took us to the door of the Rez hall and the bins were taken off the flatbed. We each pushed a bin into an elevator and then we were at his room. Parents were even given complimentary passes to eat in any of the dining halls. We all had a delicious lunch and said our goodbyes… No tears this time around . </p>
<p>The first aid kit has come in handy as Spygirl is sick with a cold and a slight fever. She did manage to drive to the beach for a study session yesterday so I’m not that concerned. Five weeks into freshman year and she likes all of her classes but one, is getting along well with the roomie, has friends and generally seems to be happy. </p>
<p>Max and I are visiting parents weekend which is still a month away. DD has mentioned she doesn’t care what we do and would rather spend the day at Disneyland. Max isn’t a big fan of the mouse so not sure what we’ll actually end up doing. Unfortunately parents weekend hits the same time as Spykid’s homecoming and we are going to miss the picture taking of his first formal dance :(. </p>
<p>The word on the parent’s FB group is that kids are all being hit by various illnesses. Luckily, DS says he’s fine and has plenty in the med. kit if he does get hit. Parent’s weekend isn’t until the end of the month and we just found out he’ll be pretty busy Sat. but will have time for us later. He recently switched rooms and things are going better now. New roomie is from the west coast so he may be joining us here for Fall Break as he won’t be going home.</p>
<p>Sounds like so many of the kids are doing great. We’re also back from parents weekend. Hubby and I went away Monday - Thursday, then drove over and took her and her friends out for dinner that night. We golfed while she was in class and campaigning for 2 girls in her sorority for homecoming. Then we picked her up and hung out with her at our hotel, I even snuggled with her for a little while she fell asleep for 30 minutes. We went shopping and dinner. Saturday was the football game. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen the hoopla surrounding sec football. We snagged her for dinner after the game and brought her back in time for her to go out that night. We’re home now. She’s doing well, but I could see it was time for her to connect. We also found out sorority parents weekend is in a month so we’re going back for that as well, and between then she’ll be home for a long weekend. So the longest stretch of time of not seeing her is over. </p>
<p>Well, we’re back home after a week’s visit to Philly. Luckily, we had a mindset that we were going on a vacation where we might get to see D once or twice, rather than having high expectations of getting a lot of her time. We basically laid out our plans & told her she could join in or not, as she liked. She was pretty happy to be taken out to dinner twice & did spend Friday afternoon with us doing a Segway tour of the city (TONS of fun, btw), but seemed anxious to keep to her new routine & not miss out on too much with her new group of friends. DH, D2 & I had no trouble keeping ourselves amused in a big city & it was nice to see D so happy. </p>
<p>Got back late last night from Family Weekend, with the son who thought he would have little time to spend with me. He actually told his fraternity people that his mom had come more than 600 miles to see him, and he wanted to spend time with me. One other young man also had his family in town, and they live about seven hours away from the campus. So everything worked out. Went to lunch at one of his favorite places. Went to dinner at another favorite. Did some shopping. Helped him and one roommate pick up their suite, as there is an inspection scheduled for today. Sunday, we did lunch and then returned to his dorm so he could do laundry and homework. He’s pretty good at multitasking, so we could chat while he worked on his calculus. </p>
<p>During dinner Friday night, he told him that he is interested in taking a redshirt season in track and field. This is not uncommon at his school. One of the young men is a senior academically, but still has two years of eligibility left. The young man, my son said, probably will leave the school with at least one masters degree, maybe two. My son said if he took the redshirt, he, too, could leave after five years with at least one masters degree. He is just 17, so maybe this is a good thing. It is good that he feels so comfortable with the campus, academics, athletics and living in that city that he wants to stay. </p>
<p>Before I left, I reminded him that I’ll make flight arrangements so his dad and I can see him run in the conference championships in November. He is very excited about us coming to see him. He also asked if I could look into getting him some ice hockey tickets when he is home during Christmas break. So, all in all, it was a great visit. </p>
<p>@momreads – are you trying to get tickets to the Winter Classic? My DH and kids are both hockey nuts, and particularly rabid fans of the Chicago Blackhakws (where DH grew up) and planning to go to the game if they can get tickets.</p>
<p>I’ve been away from this thread way too long – hope no one minds me jumping in. I just got back from D2’s family week-end (she’s a senior) and had a wonderful time. Really looking forward to D3’s, though, who’s my freshman. She’s jumped into college and seems so happy. She got a spot on a team for Design for America and really seems to be enjoying it. Recruitment will occur in January and she’s looking forward to it as her two older sisters are both in sororities and have had positive experiences. Right now I"m working on a group dinner for her new friends and their families over family week-end. The numbers keep changing and while it’s a happy problem, it’s becoming a bit of a logistical nightmare!</p>
<p>My S is just a month into school and he announced he has a girlfriend. First ever. Not even a crush before. We were taken aback, but getting used to the idea and she sounds great. But I felt/feel a sense of loss. Anyone else gone through this?</p>
<p>S was home this weekend and I didn’t see him much (he stayed at his Dad’s house) but I did drive him back to school so I got an hour of his undivided attention. He did say there is a romantic interest but she lives on his floor so he’s hesitant about it. He doesn’t want to cause floor drama if things don’t work out. It does sound like his floor has bonded nicely. He’s happy. He’s getting decent grades so far. He also told me he’s not coming home for his 4 day weekend “fall break” because he’s coming home two weekends in a row and said three is too many in a row. He wants to enjoy some free time in Ann Arbor. That makes me a little sad, but at the same time, I think it’s a great sign that he’s enjoying his new environment (where he didn’t want to be in the first place!) so I won’t make noise about it. </p>
<p>He’s going to the Homecoming dance here next weekend. One of his female friends asked him to go. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, I’ve got a table runner pieced and ready to quilt as soon as I buy some batting. I’m going to cut and piece one more quilt before surgery. Surgery is October 17th. I have a lot of stuff I’m trying to get done between now and then. My “purging” has subsided as I do other things to prep for that instead. I’m afraid I won’t get back to the purging for quite a while after the surgery because I’m not going to feel up to it physically. We’ll see. </p>
<p>My daughter started a new relationship this summer, just a few weeks before they left for schools 4 hours apart - and it not a route used by any public transport, so either you drive or you probably don’t go. Anyway, she said they went into it with eyes wide open, and they’ll see what happens by Thanksgiving. The odds are in her favor, both of these schools are about 2/3 male to 1/3 female, but so far she’s still ‘in a relationship,’ as facebook says.
She had dated another guy in junior year of HS, but that ended badly in Sept. of senior year. But to answer your question collegetime18, I wouldn’t say I felt ‘loss’ with either of the boyfriends, but a mixture of happiness and worry for her.
I’m glad you got some time with your S BarnardMom, and that things are going well in Ann Arbor. My D is starting to get a little homesick I think. I went to visit her this weekend, and we got to catch up. She still really wants to come home Columbus Day weekend even though none of her HS friends will be home. She said she just wants to sleep with her kitty and have real meals. Tried to warn her the cat has moved and sleeps with younger brother now …</p>
.</p>