first year student move out of dorm for the summer

<p>Like someone else mentioned above, if you’re moving everything back home for the summer, and it’s within driving distance, then it makes sense to drive up and help move them out. If they’re storing everything locally, they should be able to handle that.</p>

<p>We drove up and picked up our son, because it’s only a five hour drive, and he doesn’t have a car at school. He DID have everything pretty much ready to load in the car when we arrived. It was just a matter of loading up, and driving back home.</p>

<p>D1 goes to school 200 miles away. We always help with her move in and move out. But her best friend lives all the way across country, so we become her surrogate parents. When we move D1 we also move her best friend, sometimes we even store her stuff at our house. </p>

<p>It’s a distance thing. Don’t feel guilty.</p>

<p>My D is only a couple of hours away, but we helped her move at beginning of year, which was tedious considering the dorm room location of 4th floor & no elevator.</p>

<p>She did say she does’nt need us for packing or cleaning, although I am wondering about what she and roommate are going to do with their mini-fridge. Roomie is from Alaska so she won’t be taking it home & D is moving into an appt next year with full appliances, even a washer & dryer.</p>

<p>When we helped D1 move , both oursrlves and our cars were much younger.(actually my Jeep , is newer than my extended mini-van was, but much smaller)</p>

<p>My husband was disappointed when my daughter said no thanks to him coming out to help her. She’s about 1500 miles away. She is very excited that both her roommate and she finish their finals on Monday and will spend Tuesday packing and reviewing their first college year together. Her roommate lives in Taiwan and my daughter is moving into an apartment with other theatre majors next year so this is a final bonding time that they are happy to have.</p>

<p>What shape everything comes home in is questionable. I expect poor packing of boxes, hopefully nothing breaks. It’s not like she’ll leave something at school given that the room has to be empty. Will her roommate wind up with something of hers or vice versa, maybe. But in the end this time for the two of them is more important than any material item.</p>

<p>We have never been to help either of our S’s move out. Both instate. We could have easily gone and helped but neither needed any assistance. I think guys especially would just rather do it on their own.</p>

<p>S will be staying for the summer at his school (internship) and will be moving into an apartment next week. We planned a family vacation to the area (very nice, big city) to help him move/set up and be able to visit with him at a time when there are no exams, papers due, or classes. When we went previously for Parents’ weekend it was in the middle of a very busy period for him and the only time we were able to spend together was during a very hurried lunch or a little less hurried dinner, this over a period of three days. First year he handled the move back for summer all by himself (shipped some boxes, stored the rest at space provided by the school). We are sure he can handle the move just a few blocks from his dorm along with his roommates but we definitely want to give it the once-over. By the way, those storage bags you can suck the air out of are great for shipping/storing bulky bedding and winter stuff.</p>

<p>Our D is 2 1/2 hours away by car. I took her boxes and packing material about 6 weeks ago when I was in her area for business. She will be packed and ready to go. We will drive down, pulling a small U-Haul trailer behind our full-sided SUV. She has accumulated more stuff since move-in day. I am excited to go pick her up. It is a fitting close to the year. In addition, we are going to see if we can get into the room she will have next year as a RA. We’ll take pictures and measurements so she can plan how to organize and decorate the room. I feel lucky to be close enough to help with this process. She has no car on campus and will not until she needs one for an off-campus internship, if that situation ever arises.</p>

<p>My mom did :3</p>

<p>We paid for d to use the “Box My Dorm” service at her campus the first year since we lived far away (China!). They sent the boxes, she packed them, they picked them up, stored them and delivered them to her apt in the fall. It was expensive but easy since she’s at a city campus and had no friends with cars to drive her to a storage unit. She was in the apt for 2 years but for senior year moved to an unfurnished place. I just got back from helping her move in - lots of shopping and schlepping stuff - I’m exhausted. She sent half a carload of accumulated stuff back home with me - now that we are living back in the US and have a big basement. It was a 12 hour drive - borderline decision between flying/car rental and driving - the stuff to send back made driving the choice.</p>

<p>Guilty for not helping him pack?</p>

<p>The kid moving out is not about you; it’s about him taking responsibility for what he’s doing, which is a good thing.</p>

<p>I hadn’t realized that misplaced parental guilt could be a contributing factor to helicoptering.</p>

<p>Probably a good idea to use that guilty feeling as a signal that you’re about to do something for yourself, not for your child.</p>

<p>Our kid is 800 miles away: she is totally responsible for moving her stuff. She has lost some things, too. That’s OK, because those "things " are small stuff, but her learning to take care of herself is priceless.</p>

<p>Kids went to college across the country. We helped with the first move in and the last move out. Kids were able to store goods on campus during the other times. If we lived within easy driving distance and the kids wanted our help, we would have helped move them in and out at the other times. But kids seem to manage just fine.</p>