<p>intro paragraph
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My generation of parents obsessed about their children's education, from "What to Expect when You're Expecting" through "A is for Admissions." We have carefully choreographed virtually every stage of childhood. Unsatisfied with unstructured play, we created the concept of "play dates" to make sure the kids were properly socialized. Our children listened to music in utero; once born, the mobiles over their cribs were specially designed to catch their incompletely formed eyes.
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<p>rest for the weary!
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Our house will be quieter, with less-lively dinners and fewer loads of laundry.
<p>Nice article, especially with references/comparisons to college versus children sent off to wars. You do adjust and enjoy the perks of their absense.</p>
<p>Thanks poetgrl. Unfortunately, the year just started yesterday! </p>
<p>I guess cc will be a good distraction for me. Maybe the whole college search / process with D will help the time go by…</p>
<p>It is interesting how things are put in to perspective. Somehow the concerns that people have about the college my son attended now seem pretty insignificant…:rolleyes:</p>
<p>My college freshman D graduated with at least two young men (I know these two) that planned military careers to begin after high school. I have thought of these two often and wish them well.</p>
<p>my mother told me that you never stop worrying when your kids are away…I get that now.
sokkermom , my nephew did two tours in Iraq …so I can understand your anxiety !</p>
<p>Good News!! Just received an email from S. He sounded very upbeat. The weather is very hot, and he described his living conditions as “trailers surrounded by concrete blast walls”. </p>
<p>However, he will have access to internet!!! Yay. (he said it may be intermittent and fickle, but I can live with that.) ;)</p>
<p>He really is putting things in perspective as well. His last sentence: “When I read about how soldiers lived in WW II, Vietnam, and even the early days in Iraq and Afghanistan, I can’t really complain about anything.”</p>
<p>1sokkermom, thanks to your son and others like him, we are able to live in this great country. My nephew graduated from college last May (ROTC scholarship), and is now finishing up one of his two officer basic trainings. He may then go overseas. </p>
<p>I read an essay in my paper a few weeks ago by a woman who was sending her son off to preschool for the first time. Of course there was much angst and reflection, which seemed to me kind of ridiculous (I honestly don’t think I felt like she did when my oldest first went off to preschool!). I thought to myself, “Just wait until he goes away to college!” </p>
<p>But then I realized that moms whose sons and daughters are going off to war could think that we (who are sending our kids off to college) are making much ado about nothing, too!</p>
<p>A couple weeks ago in another thread I read a similar analogy to families sending their 18 year olds off to war. At the time the comparison bothered me, because I felt it illegitimized the very real sadness and unbalance I was, and others were, experiencing. Slowly, since dropping off my son at college a month ago, I have felt more stability beneath my feet. With this has come a greater ability to appreciate how wonderful is the world in which we (family and collectively) live, that my son can study and grow at one of the world’s great institutions of higher learning. The alternative for some generations was induction into one of the world’s great military institutions and a likely posting to a war front. </p>
<p>On a lighter note, this comment in the article made me laugh out loud: </p>
<p>*“…one fewer pair of shoes in the hallway…” *</p>
Any webcam?</p>