Boys contact you for practical reasons, such as when they need to know whether they can wash their blue sheets with their red t-shirt. I use these occasions to ask questions about other, more important stuff.
Same situation here. Also a son. He is 12 hours away. He did call me last night to say he really didn’t want to hang around the house before Thanksgiving (he has the week off). Today I texted and suggested he and I Drive to New Orleans and spend a couple of days walking around and seeing the sights. He said he would love that and I was thrilled. Then he told me he probably wouldn’t be home a lot over Christmas. Sigh. He is a very independent kid and not terribly communicative. It is hard on my because he is my baby! He is fine and I’m sure yours is too. He told me a bunch of sorority girls are calling him “Columbia Cutie” (That was the real reason he called). They were doing it in front of his new girlfriend (they had no idea she was dating him). I am lucky to hear anything about actual school. I know he is going camping this weekend with a new friend. I’m sure your son is fine! He does mainly call when he wants money!
Think about it. What did YOU do when you went off to college (or otherwise left home)? What did people do without cell phones and texting? Limit your contacts and let the kids breathe. If it cost money or you had to send a snail mail- would you do it? If not, don’t. Sometimes too much information about daily life is had. Can’t worry about what you don’t know about. If you must use your imagination remember that you did fine doing all sorts of things you never told.
Enjoy your life without the daily duties when s/he was home!
@wis75 , you are correct and your point makes sense. I don’t think my parents even had a phone # to reach me from the age of 18 and on. I could have been kidnapped and no one would have known. Lol, I do miss yelling at him to get off the computer games with his buddies at 2 am so I could have a full night sleep, all summer long. I do miss asking him to make his bed since his room is visible from the kitchen, I miss asking him to go shopping with me and have him describe emphatically why that would be inhumane torture. No wonder why boys don’t call their Moms. We are cruel. Still miss him anyways.
Sorry I disagree. I text my kid when I want. Sometimes he replies and sometimes he doesn’t.
My current freshman texts a couple of times a week and we do a weekly conference call / Skype, so I’m ok. However, my older child was the quiet, withdrawn one. I couldn’t get more than a quick weekly Skype with her, and it wasn’t enough to let us know that she was, indeed, struggling. Only you can gauge the appropriate / necessary amount of communication with your child needed to ensure that he or she is ok. Instead of thinking of what you need in order to feel connected – which may be more than your freshman can deal with – think of what you need in order to ensure they are launching smoothly into adulthood.
I’m still in the high school realm (freshman, junior, senior) and a older adult child! I’ve been through college once she quit going and fell in love with a boy she is no longer with etc etc etc.
All I know with parenting is I’m a crappy parent. I don’t love unconditionally, I don’t look the other way when I disapprove, and I don’t act like everything is okay when I vehemently disagree!
So, as long as my high school kids go to college maintain a decent gpa and graduate on time I’m sure all will be fine. If they drop out, fall in love “with the one”, and don’t listen to reason “ever”, then I doubt things will go well for us.
Currently all three are great, we text 10-15 times daily, talk daily, eat breakfast, have daddy/daughter time, see movies, all kinds of goodies, but the “drop out” we did all of that too, so I’m not counting any chickens until at least freshman year of college is over.
Good luck to all the parents who are paying for college and hoping for a healthy matriculation into adulthood. I’m batting a zero so far 
imo!!
When I was 18, I got in a Chevy Chevette with two girls and we took off on a 3000 mile drive across the country to go to college. I did call my parents regularly that freshman year–but boys are pretty clueless. I don’t even remember thinking that my parents had an empty house and might miss having their kids around. I’m reminding myself of that feeling as we prepare to send our son off to college–this is the launch. All of the parenting has been with the goal of raising a kid who is ready, willing, and able to be independent, and to forge his own life. If he is as clueless as I was about how my parents felt, that’s fine, as long as he’s succeeding. We’ll try to set up the weekly phone call or Skype–I assume/hope we can pick up on any big issues then, or through occasional texts.
Both of my sons text me tidbits, from pics of their breakfasts to random comments, almost daily. They call once a week (usually) but if not I don’t freak out. I know they’re busy and that makes me happy. The weekly conversations have ranged from 20 minutes to 1.5 hours, which rarely happened when they were here constantly. Of course the freshman’s conversations usually involve at least 1 thing he’d like me to send that was “forgotten”.
I tend to miss them most a dinner-time. We always tried to eat dinner as a family (all 4 of us) and the conversations were highly entertaining at times.