Thoughts on impending Christmas break?

Parent Cafe
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<p>On-topic, I always strip the beds and wash the towels before I leave for the weekend when visiting my folks, but I’m 26. I think we grow out of it eventually, you just have to wait 'til we get a 9-to-5 and start getting debilitating hangovers when we try to do the things we did in college.</p>

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<p>It looks kind of like blue states and red states. I hope this is not a government sponsored study.</p>

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<p>Dh and I are up by 6 a.m. weekdays, but I keep fairly quiet until noon since our kids sleep in when they come home. If I want to see them during the day, I’ll suggest we go out to lunch; they manage to get up for that. Otherwise, we all have supper together around 7 p.m., even if ds has eaten breakfast at 3 p.m. Their friends are welcome to visit and spend the night; I just need to know how many to expect for supper. Their closest friends’ parents don’t cook (never did - they ate prepared/frozen meals and snack stuff), so even something cheap & easy such as baked spaghetti and garlic toast or pot roast stretched with extra potatoes & carrots is considered a treat and much appreciated. </p>

<p>My mother would vacuum <em>every</em> day between 7 & 8 a.m., even when my db had worked his holiday job until 2 a.m., and would repeatedly hit the bed and then act as if it was an accident. That was typical of her behavior. We all moved out as quickly as possible and relationships never did improve much afterwards.</p>

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<p>well i am a freshman going on home and honestly, as much as most of us don’t want to admit we like being with family we do. See, the more you force us to do somethiing, the more we resent…i love my family, and i want to see them…but I also like having dinner with my girls too. They know this and they know I’ll be there for 6 weeks. We also need sleep. So unless its crucial you vaccum right then and there…wait till 10. I know we go to bed late, but its how college bodies are made…to pig out on junk food, stay up late and sleep all day. But dont’ worry its a phase. Just be patient with us and understanding. One of my good friend’s parents were/still are VERY strict, she is dreading comming home because although we will all be there…he parents aren’t going to let her do anything. Let your kids go out with there friends. I havn’t seen mine since July. I go home on the week-ends to be with my family, let me be with my friends now, but no worries, i WILL call and I’ll be home by 1 at the latest! </p>

<p>just the outlook from a college kid.</p>

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<p>Thanks AggieDancer! My niece came home after freshman year and her parents gave her an 11PM curfew during the week, and midnight on weekends. She turned around and went straight back to campus to take summer school. </p>

<p>I won’t do the vaccum trick. My best friend in high school had a mom that did that every morning at 9am all summer long. It didn’t occur to either of us then that nobody needs to vaccum EVERY day! </p>

<p>I’m happy to let him see his friends and I’m happy to have them here too, so I’m not going to demand that he dedicate huge chunks of time to us. This is actually the reason we stayed home at T-giving instead of spending the day at my in-laws. I told my husband that we could reasonably expect to see our ds on T-giving day, but the rest of break he was going to be busy with friends. I was totally prepared for that. That’s why I said we should be spending our holidays at home from here on out–because the actual holiday will be the day we can spend with just our family. I can get him to pop in on some extended family gathering on another day, but if I want uninterrupted time with him and his brothers I know the actual holiday is the best day to get it.</p>