When your youngster goes off to college for the first time, they like to keep in touch with the family at home.  Also, mom, dad and siblings like to know all is going well with them.
Nowadays, there are so many ways to communicate and to let them know the ties with home aren’t broken:

Phone and cell phone
Text messaging
E-mail
Facebook or similar
Skype of similar
Postal mail
“Care” packages

I think our granddaughter has received all of these types of communications from her parents, brother, grandparents, friends and aunt.  We know her ups and downs and she knows we’re all here and care.
Nowadays the means of …read more

When young people go off to college nowadays, there are so many ways to keep in touch – cell phone, text messaging, Facebook, instant messaging, e-mail and Skype (or a similar type of communication).
One of the enjoyable ways we keep in contact with our granddaughter is Skype. We all can see one another as well has having real time communication. Kara and her younger brother have great conversations over Skype. Even the dog sees Kara’s face and looks around for her in person.
“But I don’t know how to use Skype,” you say.
A great resource, we’ve discovered, is Skype for Dummies …read more

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.
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 …read more

When I wrote about grandparents parenting, one of my readers related the joys she’s experienced caring for a grandchild.
Janet shared:
I took care of my grandson from the time he was six months until he was 2 1/2 while his mom returned to work. It was an absolutely wonderful experience. I am so happy that I had the opportunity to bond with him and to watch him grow.
I watched him crawl for the first time and take his first steps and I helped to potty train him. I will remember these important firsts the same as I remember my own …read more

How many of you are college students as well as parents? It took me 12 years, well just about, to finally go to college. No I wasn’t being lazy or scared, but we were in the military and constantly getting moved from one place to the next. Finally, I began college earlier this year. Woo hoo!
I want to know how many of you are doing this exact thing? Was it what you expected? If not, why? For me, I think I always expected the whole group study thing going on.
But being the mother of four that is a bit different, …read more

Beginning in February, the University of Sioux Falls will offer a one-credit dating course called “Finding Dates Worth Keeping.”
Laurie Chaplin, a relationships counselor and licensed therapist who’s been married 28 years, will be the instructor.
The course is being offered through the USF Learning Institute, the same agency that offers seminars on wellness, job hunting and business communication.
What a brilliant idea!
Today’s young adults are “working harder to get smarter about their mates” and want lifelong relationships, she said.
In class they’ll learn about infatuation and when it’s best to break up.
I wish they’d offered courses like this when I …read more