<p>This thread makes me sad. My mom loves me dearly but has never and never will send me a care package. I had no idea it was so common place. I kind of assumed that people were on their own once they reached college. I also assumed that college students provided their own spending money which I have learned is not common. Clearly I am wrong about many things.</p>
<p>fairyblood, the parents hanging around here are not really representative.</p>
<p>You might want to send your parents a care package; that way they would discover what a nice surprise it is.</p>
<p>I think most students do provide their own spending money. Since my son got a very large scholarship, we told him he did not have to work during the school year. He went out and got a job anyway because he thought it was immature to be taking pizza money from his parents. I don’t think you are in the minority, by any means.</p>
<p>Seriously, though, send your parents a Valentine’s Card.</p>
<p>fairyblood, check out the thread “Have Kids in College?” for a discussion on spending money. Happy Valentines Day to you!</p>
<p>fairyblood, our son provides his own spending money, too. I had to make a very big deal to pay for his flight home (which I knew he could only afford if he skimped on food). His attitude: I’m supposed to be as independent as possible.</p>
<p>Your attitude will serve you well.</p>
<p>PS My mother never sent a care package, either. It just never occurred to her. Different strokes and all that.</p>
<p>I send care packages on a regular basis. DD appreciates the odds and ends of anything in the grocery store I think she will eat. I try to supplement her food budget with pasta, rice, granola bars, tortillas, applesauce cups, cold medicine, etc.</p>
<p>For Valentine’s Day, I included microwave brownie bowls (really quick and really good), some red foil hearts to stick on the walls and a can of the shaving cream she likes. She told roommate the shaving cream was a message from Mom: “Shave your legs and get a date for Valentine’s Day!”</p>
<p>We don’t typically “do” Valentine’s Day, but this thread made me rethink that this year. Since I waited until the last possible moment (bad, bad mom), I called the my daughter’s favorite coffee shop 7 minutes before they closed (really bad, bad mom) and asked if they did gift cards. They don’t, but the owner felt sorry for my daughter (eternally bad, bad mom!) so he agreed to help me out. It helped that he knew who my daughter was (she must be quite the regular), so he’s making a gift card for her. I had to send her an e-mail to tell her to stop by the coffee shop to talk with the owner, which removes some of the excitement, but if she’s there enough to be known by the owner, I don’t think she’ll mind the lack of sentimentality.</p>
<p>mezzomom, you did good. You are no longer a bad, bad mom.</p>
<p>D sent me a text this afternoon, thanking me for the package. :)</p>
<p>Now if I could just help S get over his disappointment. He is on winter break, and he & H are supposed to be going to Canada to snowboard. Unfortunately, H is now in bed with a 102 degree fever. S doesn’t want mom to pinch hit (I am not nearly as cool or fun as H these days). Poor kid … he is just so disappointed. We can make cakes or cookies, we can buy candy or cards … but we can’t change the fact that sometimes life just doesn’t work out as we planned. Poor kid.</p>
<p>DS is living off campus and hates cooking (and he’s got so much work going out to eat seems to be too time consuming). He keeps asking me to send a meal precooked, packed in dry ice. I thought I had V-day done when I found a place where I could order take out food from local restaurants and thought I’d have a nice restaurant deliver a nice dinner but then I found out they wanted a credit card when they arrived - it didn’t seem very nice to make him pay for a meal I was sending as a surprise. I did a little more searching and found a place that makes precooked meals they deliver via ups packed in dry ice - just what DS has been asking for! The meals aren’t too expensive - but the shipping is costly, but its for my sweetheart so I ordered him 3 meals - I hope they’re as tasty as they look. Since the meals are packed in dry ice I sent him a “mom” email today reminding him not to touch the dry ice - please use tongs or heavy gloves if you play with the dry ice and please if you play with the dry ice, play with it outside!<br>
of course, I hope he gets it - roommates seem to eat his cereal - I hope they’ll leave a package for him!</p>
<p>I redeemed myself as a mom, by making cutout heart shaped sugar cookies with frosting and a message heart stuck in the middle. The message is in Spanish this year, as the D in college is a Spanish student. We made those cookies for the classroom parties over the years. She was visiting for a Dr. appt yesterday, and then stayed over for a Barak rally. I packaged up a box of those and a few other treats for her to take back to school today. </p>
<p>Fairy, I know where you’re coming from. My mom would have never made me such a care package in a million years. I felt deprived as well, though she did many other things, far more offbeat for the most part. Because of my longing for more traditional sorts of expressions, I have a great time making care packages, sending treats to the neighbors etc. If you can’t be on the receiving end, doing the giving is also quite a lot of fun. </p>
<p>My kids also make their own spending money, as well as usually buy their own books.</p>
<p>Yep, my D earns her own spending and book money, too.</p>
<p>For Valentine’s Day, we sent her a pretty card, a cute nightgown (Fruit of the Loom makes adorable junior sizes now), the Aristocats on DVD (she loves Disney), and the new Trio Hershey’s Kisses. I even added some cold medicine to the box.</p>
<p>She was very happy with everything!</p>
<p>IM from son: “This is the richest cookie I have ever eaten! Thanks!” :D</p>
<p>I’m sure your son will know what to do with dry ice. When dh was at Caltech we threw it in the punch. :)</p>
<p>MotherOfTwo - Thanks for your recipe. I baked the cookies yesterday, and they were a big hit. My husband must have eaten around 6 or 8 of them last night! I think I made the cookies a little bit bigger than you do though, because I only got 32 cookies, not 48…lol.</p>
<p>LIMOM … I am glad that your family enjoyed the cookies :)</p>
<p>dd loved them too Mo2, thanks :)</p>
<p>I am glad that your daughter likes them, Melsmom!</p>
<p>Yesterday, my daughter told me she had been “eating way too many” of them 
And the ones I sent cross-country to my son took only two days to get delivered !!</p>
<p>I hope I can live up to all of you when my sons go to college! If I don’t, my MIL will–she still sends care packages to her oldest grandson, now in grad school at age 28. Heck, she still gives care packages of cookies to her son, now 53!</p>
<p>This reminds me of when son-the-younger was in preschool and came home to say that David, a friend, always had a note from his mom in his lunch (I think he stayed for lunch twice a week). Immediate guilt trip. So I started writing jokes on colorful sticky notes and drew a little illustration. ("where do pencils come from? Pencil-vania! Who is the most famous vegetable musician? Johann Sebastian Broccoli! and so forth. I had to check joke books out of the library–before the internet was so fruitful.) The teachers started putting them on the wall. One day I was talking to David’s mom in the playground and mentioned the notes she wrote for him. “Notes?” she said with a puzzled look. Doh!</p>
<p>I continued–every day!–until he was in 2nd grade or so when he said, “Umm, I don’t really want notes in my lunch box, Mom.” I still have the hundreds of brightly colored stick notes tucked away in an envelope, and one day I spread them all out and took photos, so I’ve got documentation.</p>