When Your Kids Head for College

A big change occurs in the home when your kids head off to college.  Sometimes they live at home and attend a local institution.  However, the majority move out of the home and attend college at a distance.

Image: sxc.hu

This happened with our daughter and now our granddaughter, who leaves soon for college 400 miles away.  This is a great adventure for her and will make a change in our multigenerational household.

We’ll miss her, yes, as we did when our daughter went 600 miles away 25 years ago.  But I wasn’t devastated.  (I began to feel guilty when people suggested that I should be devastated.)  We were excited about this opportunity for her.

Are you involved in exciting preparations for the young person in your household heading off to a new life?  We all wonder if we’ve imparted them with the knowledge and experience to handle situations that arise.  Have we let them make decisions during their high school years that will give them training in these matters?  Have we given them moral and religious backgrounds that will sustain them during difficult decision making.

Have we prepared our lives and those of siblings at home for this gap in the family life?  I used to find myself coming into the house after work and calling to Beth with something to share with her…then realize she wasn’t answering.  (In those days before e-mail, I’d have to write her a letter about it.)

Today with e-mail and social media such as Facebook, we can keep in touch with our college students   With Skype type applications, you also can talk face to face.

Do you have young people heading for college this fall?  Either away or locally?