<p>It’s good to hear about the ‘washsons’. If someone ever said ‘Tallson’ to me I’d know exactly who they were talking about (in a virtual sense).</p>
<p>My ‘UCgirls’ still have another couple of weeks of school since they’re on the quarter system. The older D is graduating and already has her job (CS) landed - fortunately for me in the local area. She had multiple offers and took the one that allows her to grow the most over the next couple of years. </p>
<p>The younger D (also CS) will be home for about a week and then she’s off to the other side of the country on an internship so we won’t see much of her but it’s a really good opportunity.</p>
<p>“His room looks normal - clothes filed on the floor so that only the perpetrator can tell which are the clean and which are the dirty.”</p>
<p>They all must come home with the same thoughts. I have tried not to go into DS’s room since he has been home (2 wks now). All that stuff on the floor still in the packing containers and clothes everywhere’s. He starts his internship next week and some of the clothes that were bought for that are still sitting in the bags on the floor of course.
My dishwasher, TV, fridge, and grocery bill all realize he is home. As for the freshmen ‘15’, he did not gain any weight during the year, but he seems bigger to us. Either that or I shrunk during the time he was gone.
I was just getting used to cooking for 2 and then S comes home. Seems like when I am not at work, I am in the kitchen. Not too much laundry of his since everything is on the floor and everytime I ask if he has a load to wash the answer is “No not yet”.</p>
<p>My college girl just told me that I need to let her go. I can’t expect her to stay home every night with me. I told her that my goal this summer is not to get too attached to her again. It’s great to have her home, watching “So you think you can dance” together.</p>
<p>Boy, I can relate to a lot of these posts. D is home. Moved the entire contents of her dorm room to the middle of her bedroom floor. H & I went to NYC for a few days (S2’s graduation) and when we came home, D’s room was clean! Guess I just need to leave for awhile. (Actually, I think I used to tell my H that all the time. He was never willing to let me go.)</p>
<p>She doesn’t have a job - her schedule didn’t make it practical. She has two HS friends coming to visit (from Germany) for a couple weeks in June. Getting wisdom teeth out in July. Going to a music camp in August. She is open to babysitting - got $60 Saturday night, which will have to last her for awhile. I’m also making her act as my “unpaid intern” on a writing project I’ve been working on. And she wants me to teach her to cook, so she’s cooking two scratch meals a week - complete with grocery shopping, with me hovering. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, S2 graduated, and is now on tour in China with the Juilliard orchestra. He’ll be home for exactly two weeks, before heading out to Santa Barbara for the rest of the summer. Same two weeks D’s friends will be here. My S1 has already moved into the category of “visitor” - coming usually just once a year, at Christmas. S2 is headed that way, and D won’t be far behind. I just try to soak in as much as I can while they’re here.</p>
<p>binx, another thing we found useful for kids home too short a time to get a “real” job was paying them to do stuff beyond the usual household chores - like paint the woodwork. I didn’t care if it got done at odd hours, D was dependable enough that I just let her mark her in and out times and paid minimum wage plus $1. Too bad that was years ago - it’s pretty scuffed up now.</p>
<p>paying 3, I have a knife selling friend. Sometimes someone from our church will say they dont want a knife, but he mentions he gets $25 per presentation regardless, so they agree to watch his presentations anyway.</p>
<p>Had a knife selling presentation from S’s friend years ago. I felt bad for him so I bought the cheapest available knife, but it wasn’t cheap. However, I declined to give him any referrals because I just couldn’t put my friends on the spot.</p>
<p>Along with all the other things already mentioned- (food, oj, milk, socks…) there is:
-no hot water left
-NOISE (some of it is happy noise)
-no place to park (their friends are taking all the spaces)</p>
<p>And isn’t it funny how we worry about them again. I didn’t stay up late worrying where they were when they were gone. But now I do, again…</p>
<p>D was here and is gone again until the 1st week of August. I did tons of laundry, she (and then she & BF) ate us out of house & home and made the house a mess, then off they went to summer research. Gosh I love that girl and now I miss them both!</p>
<p>oh, I’m jealous! DS doesn’t come home for another 2 1/2 weeks. but I love reading everyone’s posts(a little preview of what’s to come - I know DS will park himself in his room, not unpack and be on the computer all night…and I’ll be fussing at him, urging him to get going on making some money).</p>
p3t, My S2 was also looking at the knife selling thing! I told him do what he wants but he isn’t to call any of my friends. He’s delivering pizzas instead. :-)</p>
<p>
lafalum84, we went through this exact same thing for about 2 weeks until the pizza delivery gig came along. Why do they think they have to wait to hear back?!?! aaaargh! Anyway, since misery loves company, i just thought I’d let you know you aren’t alone.</p>
<p>Loved hearing about wii golf. I’ve been enjoying listening to S1 and S1 play “pocket tanks” (some free online multiplayer game involving shooting one another’s tanks) against each other. Also, since they are delivering pizzas for competing pizza chains, we hear pizza delivery stories every night. H and I are finding it kinda funny.</p>
<p>S1 was lamenting that his best friend is gone oos for a job and his g/f is going to Azerbaijan (!) on an internship. I sweetly reminded him that he still has me after all! :-)</p>
<p>S is out of school, and is hanging out with family and friends until D gets out of high school and we fly back to the states for our summer home leave. </p>
<p>Are there any other expats out there who live out of a car all summer on their home leave? I’ve got lots of ‘what do you do when the college kid has 6 weeks more vacation than the siblings’ type questions.</p>
<p>Karen Colleges, we had several summers away from our kids. We did not get summer leave - my H worked full time over there. Our trips home were never more than a couple weeks, once a year. And we usually stayed with relatives (or in a cheap by-the-week hotel). A couple times one or the other of our sons joined us over there. Other summers, the boys had summer jobs. S1’s internship (and after graduation, job) was near relatives who were willing to house him. S2 played in a pit orchestra for a summer festival, which fed and housed him (and paid him.) During the weeks of gap, they stayed with relatives or friends.</p>
<p>I minded not having them with us, but in reality, they wouldn’t have been, even if we lived stateside.</p>
<p>Lafalum
Best friend retail manager doesn’t do the credit/record search until she actually offers a job b/c it costs $$ each time its done.Getting kids to realize they shouldn’t “wait” until someone responds before looking further is hard.
Best strategy I guess is to cut off the supply of free $$ from you and see if that makes any difference.It’ll get old real fast sitting around with no $$ to do anything,even no $$ to put gas in the car, I would imagine.
Honestly,babysitting is the best gig going.D did it all the time when she still came home for summers in college.She would sit until 11:30,12:00 and then first go out!!</p>
<p>I was having trouble with WashDadJr not wanting to work last summer, until I mentioned, “You know, son, we’re not paying you an allowance any more. We’ll pay tuition, room and board, and keep you on our medical insurance, but if you want spending money you better find a job.” This caused a long, blank stare and a lot of rapid eye blinking, but when he recovered he found a job working the counter at a fast food restaurant. His major skills were speaking English and being reliable. He started the school year with $2,100 in the bank, and finished with $91.</p>
<p>Oh, DS knows he has to provide his own spending money. And I honestly think he wants a job. He just does not understand what it takes to find one, since last year he was hired at the second place he applied (unfortunately that store just closed). I have nagged him so many times… yesterday I was talking to my dad on the phone and telling him the story, later DS said to me, “You know, I could hear everything you said on the phone.” I replied, “I know you could.” I really think he expects someone to call him up out of the blue and offer him the perfect job. </p>
<p>I am trying to look at the big picture… he has a 3.8 GPA at a selective LAC. He’s pleasant to be around and does chores when asked (mows lawn, etc). He has some money in the bank from last summer’s job, and he’s pretty frugal so it’s lasted him well. </p>
<p>If he were really looking hard and couldn’t find anything I’d have sympathy. But both of my kids are too picky about what they want to do. There is no shame in working at Dunkin Donuts or Walmart! </p>
<p>I will have to have a talk with soft-hearted DH who hands the kids money every time they walk out the door. No job, no money.</p>
<p>It took S1 six weeks to find a job summer after his freshman year. It was hard to watch. He truly thought it would be easy. He started out full of hopes - applying to places his friends were working, sure that someone was going to snatch him up. As the weeks went by - either flat-out rejections, or never hearing back - his shoulders drooped lower and lower, and we had to have some talks about appearing confident, etc. Eventually he landed a minimum wage lonely spot at a mall kiosk.</p>
<p>In hindsight, it was one of those growing experiences for him. The following year, he wanted an internship, and started early to look for one. And when senior year came, he was pretty proactive about looking for a job. By the time he graduated, he had interviewed with three places, and was offered at position at each. I think those long and discouraging weeks of rejection really ended up helping. Helped him realize that people weren’t going to be knocking the doors down to get him, and helped him learn how to sell himself.</p>
<p>My D has a job with the rec dept. teaching tennis. But after the public schools are out, a full 6 weeks after moving home from her dorm! She needed another supplimentary job, so was glad to be offered a job in a restaurant, soon to be open. They promised by June 1. The place has a hopeful sign on the front, and a menu online. But very much an interior work in progress, and I’m afraid it could be another month. We laughed last week when she said the building no longer had windows last week. Now replaced, but still…</p>
<p>Karen Colleges-coming from an ex pat family of origin, and with close expat friends, I know it’s rough scheduling home leave. My much younger brother spent time in my basement each summer during HS, helping me with the young 'uns and staying up till all hours. As he got older he found jobs. My close friend’s offspring have lived in my basement for various odd bits of time, between college and visits to parental postings in various corners of the globe. The parents throw in some money for food on occasion. Craigslist in college towns can be a good place to find summer sublets for various odd intervals, should they want to stay in one place.</p>
<p>timely, let’s have my S’s knife included with your S’s pizza delivery :)</p>
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<p>Well said, Ivoryk.</p>
<p>Sharing a lesson learned: a week of job-hunting was wasted, chasing after ads that sounded like actual office jobs on Craigslist. In fact, they were Temporary Agencies using their best ad to attract someone to the office. Nothing wrong with that, but if he could re-do that week, he’d ask first on the phone, “are you a temp agency” before spending half the day, my gasoline, 2 hours of skill-testing…</p>
<p>I always wondered why some ads on Craigslist say “NOT a temp agency.” Now I know.</p>
<p>Of course, temping through an agency can be excellent summer college work, if that’s what is desired. We just learned that the ads can result in bait-and-switch sceanrios. Passing along that tip.</p>
<p>A funny conversation was about how a college post-freshman thinks 3 months is so much more than a temporary position, while to much of the working world, that IS temporary!</p>
<p>Karen Colleges,
We’re another expat family and have done quite a few “camping” with various relatives combined with hotel summers. Last year we had to come back home four weeks before D started her first year in college, so we said goodbye in July and left her at her older sister’s, and she made her way off to school by herself when the time came. We have no family anywhere near her school, so we contracted with a moving company in the area to pick up and store her dorm stuff for the summer. It wasn’t cheap, but it was by far the easiest way we could have dealt with it from a distance, and it’s good to not have to worry about how to get everything back there in August.</p>
<p>We’re staying here this summer, and D’s home (yay!). She’s a bit at loose ends because our community is rather transient and only one out of her group of ten or so high school friends is still here this summer. But she put in job applications on Tuesday and was called for an interview today, so that’s a good sign.</p>