My aunt was at a party once, and was talking to someone who’s youngest child (of several) was getting ready to head off to college. She said “You must be so sad that your last one is heading off…” His response: “Clearly you’ve never lived with teenagers.” Pretty much sums it up for me. I like to have my kids come visit, but I also like my empty nest.
Anyone else ready for their senior to start college (i.e. drop kick them into their first semester)?
Can you be happy they are off to college and miss them at the same time?
@lovestheheat: My D, a freshman in high school, has caught college enthusiasm from her brothers. While they are rejoicing that they’re almost gone, she’s lamenting the three years she still has to do before she can leave. Today she asked, “Can’t I just get my GED and apply for colleges myself?” Should be a delightful 3 more years.
My older DD did that and I kept reminding my self that they are supposed to do this and they are psychologically getting ready to leave. Try to look toward the future relationship…don’t put up with too much nonsense but don’t fight too much with them either.
I too am hoping that once she picks a school that things will improve. I also remember that D1 was a pain at times. S1 was even worse but it wasn’t attitude, it was actions.
Ben and Jerry’s free cone day! That’s got to lighten the mood of any teenager.
I am blessed to have a kid #2 with an active sense of humor so we have narrowed this home stretch of senior year down to “harassable items” i.e. getting the service hour forms turned in, one last easy school based scholarship app, etc. I am allowed to jokingly harass away about those items and the sooner they are checked off the sooner I will stop. Then I have to NOT harass him about the other stuff which takes a measure of self control. So far this is keeping it light and helping to keep me from going crazy about the odds and ends that need to get done on a deadline as well as the stuff that really is his business alone or is just fine on the back burner.
“wants to get as far away from us as possible”
" think it probably has to do with hormones and wanting to get on with the rest of their lives. Parents are totally squaresville, btw. I think this attitude goes into conversion at age 15."
- D’s top criteria was opposite, she wanted to be close to home (although not in our hometown). We supported her decision. Not only for college, but also for Grad. school, she did not apply to any further than 5.5 hrs from her hometown. Our attitude was “…whatever…” Actually, we pushed her certain way only when she was deciding on her HS, not college, not Grad. School. She told me many times that she is very happy to attend the HS of MY choice and it would be a great mistake to go to HER choice of HS. I guess, mother knows the best!
I think the reason they drive us so crazy in the senior year is so we aren’t so torn with them leaving the nest.
For me, after my son went to college and outgrew the senior intensity and had a new appreciation for home related things, it took awhile to adjust. I kept expecting the high school senior version and it quickly disappeared once he went away to college.
You know, kids at this age are torn between wanting to be independent and still needing us parents. They don’t want to need us. They need us. All that conflict, raging hormones and uncertainty of what the future holds is a combustible mixture bound to explode numerous times until things transition in to a more predictable routine
The title of this thread is hilarious. With teenagers, you can always count on some “ready to drop kick” days…
So I’m not the only one secretly dreaming of leaving a child at the college after an admitted student event?
Yes. He needs to go. One of the schools admitted to is only a few miles from home and S2 mentioned just living at home. We “explained” to him that living in the dorm is the right choice.
We toured Beloit College this past February. It is only an hour and 15 minutes from our house. Originally, I just wanted D to see what a small LAC looked like, but she really liked the school and it’s actually a good fit for her, academically and socially… However, she said Beloit, the town, was an absolute deal-breaker. Too small and besides, she wants to “leave the area”…
Is it wrong that I am secretly relieved?
One hour is just close enough for her to constantly text me to bring her things, come get her, bring her laundry home every weekend, etc. And I know I’d be tempted to want to go up and meet her for lunch/coffee all the time…
Yes, she needs to be at least 2-3 hours away, I think, for her sake and mine.
i also know that my mother and I were always at each other until I went away for college. Shortly after, she suddenly became more tolerable, :), and I looked forward to her weekly phone calls.
Yes. I vacillate between the worry that my son isn’t mature enough to go away to college and the desire to get him out of the house as soon as possible.
No, not my senior. He is the greatest kid I have ever met. 
I cried when he got accepted to UA. I am happy for the opportunities he will have, but wish he was going to be closer.
My daughters, that’s a whole other story. They are exhausting to deal w/ on a daily basis, or I am just getting too old for my life!
Thank goodness, I am not alone, although why is it that I don’t recall these painful memories when DS went off to college just 4 short years ago? It’s because he took a 180 degree turnaround and I must have miraculously gotten way smarter now:) Hoping same for DD, but she’s competing for 1st place in the “ungrateful, pretentious, disrespectful and annoying” prize of all time right now!
Coloradomom - things probably WERE easier with your son. IMO, the mother-daughter relationship is way, way more fraught than the mother-son one.
Don’t even want get into my experiences with my daughters… 
VICTORY!!! We are in for 4 days of sun and there is nothing on the weekend calendar. I convinced the kid that it would free us both up if he knocked out his 2 “Harassable Items” by this afternoon so I didn’t feel compelled to bug him about them all weekend. Done and done! :D/
Mine is so done with HS that we actually had to talk to his top college choices and see how badly he needs to do to lose his merit awards at each one, and then favor the one that is most lax!! Please give me the strength to get through the next two months!!!
Oh boy… This thread had opened a can of worms for me!! DS was so disengaged with the college application process (fear, apathy, who knows) - refusing to check out schools on line, refusing to sign up for college presentations at school, refusing to investigate major…that I finally gave up and applied to the damn schools myself… Yes you read that right: selected the major, the school everything. His only criteria… A decent male/female ratio, but was adamant he didn’t care where to school was, the size or setting. Fine. I applied to 6 - 3 in New England, 3 further afield. Colleges tours was a study in a non-committal, deadpan expression, no questions ever asked on tours, and usually ended with can we go now? And Mom “don’t you dare go to the college bookstore”. No road to Damascus moment for him!! Just one big yawn…
Now that it’s time to make a decision, the fear of being too far away from Mom “get off my back, woman” and Dad is starting to show. I love this kid to death (don’t we all?) and almost feel sorry for him. Almost…