<p>Yeah, at least going through the motions that they still NEED us!!!</p>
<p>This is my favorite thread. Unfortunately, I don’t have any to contribute. My daughter and I have the kind of relationship that she would have more to say about me to her friends than I have about her. I call her up when I can’t find things in the house. She used to keep me organized when she lived at home. She tried to pass on that responsibility to her younger sister, but with no success.</p>
<p>It’s son’s freshman year. It is 2:30 in the afternoon and I am in an very important meeting at work. My cell phone vibrates. I look. It is DS. I let it go to voice mail. Less than 5 minutes later, son calls again. Voice mail again. Another call. This is very unusual behavior; it must be important, so I excuse myself.</p>
<p>S: Mom, are you sitting down?</p>
<p>Me: No, what’s up?</p>
<p>S: I think you should sit down.</p>
<p>Me: (fill in name), tell me what is going on.</p>
<p>S: I got the (fill in the company) internship for this summer!</p>
<p>Me: That’s great! I’ll call you back later.</p>
<p>When I called him back I told him to never start a conversation with me with "are you sitting down?</p>
<p>I finally got my cell phone in Saturday’s mail! Two weeks after I lost it, nearly 2 weeks after son retrieved it.</p>
<p>Just when I think it can’t get funnier…</p>
<p>Phone call from DS…yesterday.</p>
<p>DS: Mom, I got some mail in my mailbox and the person doesn’t live here anymore. What should I do with it?</p>
<p>Me: I would suggest taking it to the post office (it’s a block away) and telling them that the person no longer lives at your address.</p>
<p>DS: Oh.</p>
<p>I’m still scratching my head wondering what he was thinking.</p>
<p>They don’t know what they don’t know…</p>
<p>I suspect he wanted to hear you say, “Oh, you throw those out.”</p>
<p>I think I’ve told this story before…it’s from when I wss in college. </p>
<p>My BF stopped by to say good-bye before leaving for Christmas vacation. I opened the door …and couldn’t say a word for a minute because I was so stunned. </p>
<p>“Yeah, my hair’s pretty short. I let my laundry go too long and I just couldn’t face doing it.” I was baffled, so he explained. Whenever he went home for vacation, he EITHER got a hair cut OR did his laundry. </p>
<p>"If I don’t do either, my parents tell me what a failure I am and how they feel as if I haven’t learned anything. If I do both…my mom gets really depressed because she thinks I don’t need her anymore. </p>
<p>So, I always do one or the other–never both. My dad will be pleased by the short hair. My mom will enjoy doing my laundry."</p>
<p>S: I just had Lasik surgery.
Me: I thought you were going for first consult, and would have another with the surgeon who did my friend’s eyes.
S: Well, this place seemed fine.
Me: Who was your doctor?
S: I don’t know his name. Nice nurses
Me: Why didn’t you wait and discuss with me first?
S: It was your birthday, and I know how you would worry.</p>
<p>So, now I’ll worry that he didn’t get best care and there will be a complication. I definitely would have researched and interviewed several places before trusting elective eye surgery to anyone!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>ROTFL! I am the one who nags about haircuts. And I confess, I still enjoy doing their laundry when they’re home. Otherwise, it does not quite feel like they’re home, more like guests at dinner.</p>
<p>No college kids yet (maybe next year! fingers crossed), but the hair/laundry story got me. I was a bit taken aback last week when S-the-younger (15) wrote a 7:45 am meeting with his GC on our family calendar. Never in the 18 years I’ve been doing the family calendar has anyone else written on it. I’m no longer necessary! (Secretly pleased)</p>
<p>neumes: Yay!</p>
<p>I don’t have to nag about hair. S’s hair is the texture of astroturf. It actually looks quite fun when it’s properly cut, especially with his beard, which he does groom (yup!) But when hair gets long, it’s so coarse and curly, big, big unruly curls, that the hairdresser dresses him down (couldn’t resist.) So she cut it really short to last till next vacation because she knows he won’t get it done at school. He says the staff at local shop isn’t up to his hair. Maybe right. One bad haircut was awful.</p>
<p>Hi Neumes and Mythmom! This thread is too funny. Here’s mine:</p>
<p>S: Mom, when you come up in 2 weeks, could you please bring me a dry erase board from Staples?</p>
<p>Me: Sure, honey, but why don’t we just order it online and have it sent to you? Then you’ll have it in a couple of days.</p>
<p>S: But then I’ll have to walk all the way across campus to get it!</p>
<p>(Then: Okay, Mom, whatever’s easiest for you.)</p>
<p>Ordered and sent it today. ;)</p>
<p>ohmygod lol</p>
<p>that is so funny
of course I call my H on the phone instead of going out to the garage to ask him something- but its cold out there!</p>
<p>One of the most memorable things my Dad told me when I was in college, “the grades aren’t so important, you learn a lot more at college than what is taught in the classroom”.</p>
<p>I thought he was talking about social skills, but maybe it also includes: When to cut your hair, do laundry, walk to the post office, how often you can skip classes, etc.</p>
<p>Skie: hello to you. Yeah, I’ve heard that, too. S wanted me to mail him a book so he could avoid walking into Williamstown to get a book.</p>
<p>At the parental information speech during Parent’s weekend, one of the questions asked was why there was not on campus delivery of ordered items from the college bookstore, which is off campus, a 5 to 10 minute walk. The questioners son had not managed to make it to the bookstore for some necessary items. After careful explanation of the lack of storage space in the mailroom, the logistical problems, the President finally said “And we decided it is not THAT far a hike.” To wild applause.</p>
<p>D has figured out a great scam to use on her father…</p>
<p>She finds out she needs/wants a supplementary book for a class. She gets a book stipend, so the deal is that books are out of her bank account…</p>
<p>She knows that H is a man possessed when he’s on a mission to find the best deal on the internet. Like, he spends hours… Yesterday, she TXT’ed him the name of a textbook that she wants as a reference…she’d bought it new (for $100), because it’s in her major and she knew she’d keep it. Then, she found out that by talking to an advisor, she could get her transcript modified to get AP credit for this course, instead of the default course previously listed.</p>
<p>She wants to have the book as a reference, so she figured out that she can sell it back and get full price (offer expires this week)…then have Daddy get his thrills and find the best combination of quality/price (and pay for it with HIS credit card). 
gotta give her credit for figuring this one out!!!</p>
<p>Astrophysicsmom,
There’s a reason that D got a scholarship! Smart cookie! :D</p>
<p>astrophysicsmom: Yeah, those are good survival skills. I try really hard not to let on that we’re onto them. </p>
<p>D is really good at playing me too. My weakness is clothes. (Common phrase, well it was so on sale, and I just couldn’t leave it there.)</p>
<p>S memorized my credit card number (something I couldn’t do) and said he’s reimburse me for certain items, and we all know how that went.</p>