Not a curmudgeon at all! Totally get it, as the same things kind of play out in LPS with the need to meet a mandated number of days in school, covering for weather days, as well as in-service days. It’s a big puzzle to be sure! Just wishful thinking on my part. We knew going in that this would be an issue, and I’m grateful we can can get him home at all. My nephew (also a 25) is on break from now until January, started in mid-September, but they won’t wrap their spring trimester until mid-June. Different again - but I think my kid would rather have summer start in May than in mid-June.
I wish that the schools did virtual classes on the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. S25’s school has a mandatory virtual day once a semester, but it’s just a random Monday. If they are stress testing the system or whatever, might as well do it when it can be a benefit to the kids who travel…
1 Like
yeah, that would be worse (though I never had it myself). This year, at least, both my kids’ schedules would have room to not have class week and still have finals before Xmas. It may not be feasible depending on when holidays fall, though. (My younger is in some college classes during HS).
I don’t like semesters myself, so there is that bias anyway:) I never went back to school before Labor Day in K through college graduation. August is summer! My 25, for college is first time I experienced it in my family! (My kids didn’t K - HS either! They started after labor day, public private elementary and HS).
It seems so variable among schools, too. S25’s college started classes on August 13 this year. He has the whole week of Thanksgiving off. And then he has one more week of classes next week, and then a week of exams. Exam week ends December 12. And then classes begin January 10 for next semester. So it can be done, but I guess August 13 is an early start compared to most places?
D22’s school, on the other hand, started classes August 25. She’s done with exams December 16. She does not get Mon and Tues of Thanksgiving off. Next semester, classes start January 12.
So it’s really all over the place. I prefer S25’s schedule that lets him have the whole week off!
1 Like
S25’s classes started on August 25 and had the week of Thanksgiving off. He has a week of classes and then a week of finals. Last final day is December 12th. Second semester starts on January 20th. (There’s a winter intercession January 6-17, but he’s not taking a class then.)
S23 started on August 13th and does not officially have the week of Thanksgiving off - just Wednesday-Friday. Next year they’ll have the entire week off. He has two days of classes and a reading day before finals start on December 4th. Last final day it’s December 10th. Second semester starts on January 12th.
D25 started classes on Aug. 26. She only gets W-F off for Thanksgiving and then finals end on Dec. 12. She will be home until Jan. 12. We have family near her school, so we decided to have her stay there for Thanksgiving. She is excited to have Thanksgiving with relatives she usually only sees in the summer. Our older two are spending Thanksgiving with significant others families, so this will be our first Thanksgiving with no kids home. But they will all be home for Christmas!
2 Likes
And she is stuck at the small airport in the middle of nowhere. Likely going to miss her connecting flight due to weather. Its her first time traveling totally solo and she is STRESSED. I’m almost 6 hours away and can’t help. We both need to take deep breaths.
ETA: Her dad (my ex) booked the flights and is on the phone with the airline trying to find alternate arrangements.
13 Likes
So C25 has successfully navigated the unholy combination of the Long Island Railroad and New Jersey Transit to meet up with C17. The child has gotten used to taking the LIRR places, but the anticipatory absolute freakout at also needing to also take a different transit system that has the temerity to require a different app was kind of amazing.
(As for the others, C23 is taking Greyhound to spend Thanksgiving with my parents, and C19 will be spending Thanksgiving solo, which will be followed by spending the entirety of tomorrow at the Art Institute of Chicago. And dfbspouse and I will spend the snowstorm predicted for tomorrow at the house of some friends of ours who we first met when both they and we had just barely moved to Anchorage.)
9 Likes
ooof, connections in small airports for a first solo trip is a high stress situation, I have my fingers and toes crossed it is all sorted for her!!
Well, S25 has been at his roommates house since yesterday. He hasn’t texted or reported in, so hopefully all is well. I sent him something to bring as a little hostess gift, which hopefully he remembered.
S22 decided NOT to stay at school, but told me too late to cancel the Thanksgiving dinner for 4-5 that I had ordered from Whole Foods. So he left, but tracked down some fraternity brothers who were sticking around and had no plan and they went today and picked up the dinner. I’m glad someone gets to enjoy it. Meanwhile, he had told me he was going to his friend’s house in New Hampshire (his school is in MA). So this morning I asked when he’d start the drive - oh, they aren’t driving, they are taking the T into Boston and then a bus. Great! Not driving, even better. Then a few hours later I get a text “Mom, I have no idea where we are going. I thought [guys name] lived in New Hampshire, but we just bought train tickets for Portland, ME, so maybe he lives in Maine? No clue what’s happening, but it will be an adventure!” He’s been in the same town in Maine for three or four hours, so I’m guessing that’s where his friend does Thanksgiving at least, whether he normally lives there or not. Hope he’s having the adventure he wanted! 
We’ll be having a quiet Thanksgiving - neither boy is coming home, my sister and her family went to her in-laws (not typical), so its me and husband, my mom, and my sister in law.
5 Likes
My S25 also has off only Wed-Fri, so we decided to have him stay. Flight prices were high, and we were very worried about flight issues making a short trip even shorter. He had plans with friends both yesterday and today, and it’s less than three weeks until he comes home for the end of the semester.
D22 and her fiance are here for Thanksgiving (along with the two younger boys who still live here 
), so we are having a nice feast for six today before attending a larger family gathering Saturday.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
6 Likes
Her dad bought tickets out of MBS around 630pm with connecting flight in Detroit. Her flight out of MBS was delayed making her miss her connecting flight and it was too late for another flight. They shuttled her to a hotel across the freeway around 10pm to get a bit more sleep and caught a flight home early this morning. Her dad was in contact with her and the airline helping her navigate the cancelations.
So my tiny 4’11” 18 year old had a very adventurous first solo flight home and added her first solo hotel stay to the fun. Feeling fortunate she’s traveled quite a bit as a kid so it wasnt as scary and new.
6 Likes
Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!
6 Likes
Here’s my “D25 is still learning how to adult” moment:
I get a call Wed ~9pm from D25:
D25: “Mom, I think we have a problem.”
Me: “What’s up?”
D25: “I don’t think I have my passport here. I was just starting to pack…”
Pause while I run to where we keep the passports, and pick up the first one to see whose picture it is: D25.
Cue husband and S27 googling any options D25 might have to actually get on the plane if we send it to her digitally.
Cue me throwing pajamas, a change of clothes, and my toothbrush/toothpaste into a Trader Joe’s bag, brewing a cup of coffee, and calling friends who live an hour north of D25 to see if I can crash with them for a few hours.
I drove between 5-6 hours to arrive at friend’s house just before 3am. It turns out D25’s boyfriend was headed my direction for Thanksgiving, so we met 20 minutes from where I stayed, she climbed in the car, and we made it back home ~3:30pm.
Of the many things I have to be grateful for, these were preeminent that day:
*D25 noticed the night before her flight
*It turns out if you leave at 9:30pm, traffic from the Bay Area to LA isn’t so bad.
*Boyfriends with cars who are happy to drive their girlfriends to where they need to be are a gift.
*My husband and son made all the food for Thanksgiving and did all the clean up, because D25 and I were exhausted after little sleep and that we all went to serve dinner at a transitional home right when we got back.
*That getting to D25 was driveable. She applied to schools all.over.the.country. At many places, that lack of passport would have meant she wasn’t coming home, and we’ve all been so glad she was with us this weekend.
Memories! These are the things that we’ll remember for years to come.
9 Likes
Flight home she got stuck at DTW at 10pm and had to call a shuttle and stay in a hotel solo for the first time. Flight back, after being delayed 7 hours, her dad canceled her flight and ordered an uber (pricey as the airport was 2 hrs from school).
My ex dropped off S23 at the airport over an hour away and left. Only for his flight to be canceled and him to be stranded now as well. Due to multiple cancellations, the hotel situation was crazy, so his dad bought him a bus ticket home and will take him back to the airport early tomorrow morning.
Crazy. We got 12 inches of snow here on Saturday but it was all pretty clear by 9am.
9 Likes
Just a heads up - if your daughter did not board her outbound leg of a round trip flight, there is a chance her return flight will be cancelled. I’d call the airline before heading to the airport to send her back.
5 Likes
Thanks for this reminder. She actually cancelled her outgoing flight the night beforehand, so she had no problem boarding just now. But, it was hard to see her go, even though she’ll be back in two weeks. I’m sure we’ll get used to this pull and release, but I still have lots of emotions about it all.
5 Likes
My S25 went home with his roommate for Thanksgiving. Is it weird that I’m unaccountably jealous of how much fun he said he had with them and how “cool” roommates family is? I mean, I’m glad he had a good time and all, but I want to be cool too….
9 Likes
Remember, it is easy to be cool for a weekend with your kid’s friend. I expect they are not so cool all the time as responsible parents.
10 Likes
Realistically, I know this. But that sort of lives in the same part of my brain as “I want him to be a successfully launched proto-adult who doesn’t need his mom, but DAMMIT, I want him to as least still WANT his mom.” The part of my brain that knows how it should be is fighting with the part that is missing the little guy who would cuddle on the couch with me so we could both read our books together…
8 Likes