<p>Far be it from me to offer advice to you 2011 parents, but I’m gonna do it anyway - here goes:</p>
<li> Cherish these next few months</li>
<li> Start taking pictures. LOTS of pictures</li>
<li> Surprise your kid by coming home from work early and taking him/her to a movie - unannounced</li>
<li> Buy him/her a free tank of gas - unannounced</li>
<li> Slip him some $$ for a nice bouquet for his prom date</li>
<li> Slip her some $$ for a nice prom dress</li>
<li> Learn how to use AOL Instant Messenger (or similar) now.</li>
<li> Sign up for a frequent flier program. If Frontier flies to your city, sign up…they offer benefits at 15k miles (vs 25k for most airlines)</li>
<li> Make plans NOW for Parent’s Weekend. No need to stay near the school. Your student will want to be as far away as possible by the time it rolls around.</li>
<li>Tell your son/daughter how proud you are of them.</li>
<li>Tell your son/daughter how proud you are of them.</li>
<li>Tell your son/daughter how proud you are of them (get the drift?)</li>
<li>Start a scrapbook (starting with the pictures in step 2)</li>
<li>Plan a cool High School graduation party. Bon Voyage theme?</li>
<li>Make friends on this message board. You’ll need them. Send private messages. Make friends with me. I’ll be more than happy to help you out, regardless of how little I know :)</li>
<li>Start getting ready to let go. Sea Year will be here before you know it. Trust your parenting from the past that you have instilled strong morals in your son/daughter. They are in the world now - trust them.</li>
<li> Save up a few bucks for “special” packages. Beef jerkey, Twizzlers, and Swiffers. They’ll love you for them. Even if they don’t like beef jerkey and twizzlers.</li>
<li> Look into a national cell phone plan - friends/family/etc. IMs just don’t cut it and you’ll need to hear their voice.</li>
<li> Have a BIG party for graduation. Bon Voyage is a nice theme.</li>
<li> Thank God that you have such an awesome kid. Admission to KP is a huge feat. Your parenting and love have created this amazing creature. Thank God every day that you have been blessed with such a wonderful son/daughter. </li>
</ol>
<p>This is a little over the top but plan a trip to San Francisco or Baltimore and visit the SS Jerimiah O'Brien or the SS John Brown the last two working Liberty Ships -- the ghosts of Kings Pointers of the past live on those ships.</p>
<p>LFWB and I flew out to San Francisco and started our cross-country road trip on the Jerry O'Brien. It was a time, I'll never forget.</p>
<p>Thanks for the list and would have to agree with most of your suggestions. </p>
<p>But, in the end, each of those mids (especially plebes) will have to use all of their abilities, mates, and academy recources available to make it through. A little positive reinforcement never hurts, but individually, they must be always focused on a major goal that allows them to continue to do all of thse things to survive and chose to remain here. For most of them, it is probably a special career goal or outstanding opportunities that could not be achieved anywhere else other than as a KP Graduate. Otherwise, they might choose to join their HS buddies at State U. and party their way through the next four years. Just my opinion.</p>
<p>What an awesome list JHR. Kudos to you for putting it out there. The nice memories you're making for them now sometimes get re-played in their heads during the hard times & help some so I've been told. I know this list is about preparing to go in & enjoying what little time there is left but I'd like to add: </p>
<h1>21 - Learn to take one day at a time from this day forward. Yikes, but they are gonna take you on a wild ride. Re-read MMA's comments.</h1>
<p>Here's the Don'ts from my experience:
Don't watch them sleep or stare at them during dinner - freaks them out
Don't talk about how they're gonna get hammered during Indoc
Don't let siblings laugh about how they're gonna get hammered during Indoc
Don't let them hear you crying in the bathroom
Don't let them get broken before the big day arrives
Don't plan anything on their last day home. Let it be theirs.</p>
<p>I would suggest also getting the Navy Federal Flagship Rewards credit card as soon as elgible. This card will get your free airline tickets at 15,000 points, and the ticket is good for 300 on any airline, no blackout, no nothing, just 300 bucks for whatever flight you find. 20,000 points gets you 500. The best thing, buy your airline ticket with the credit card and get the airline FF miles along with the points on the credit card.</p>
<p>For membership, all midshipmen are elgible and as soon as they are elgible so are their family members.</p>
<p>Very good observation MMA Insider. My son could easily go to Virginia Tech (he was accepted) on a 4 year NROTC (he received this too), and as you say "party" his way through school with most of his friends, but instead, he chose KP because of a specific career goal he's had since he was small. Needless to say I'm proud of him and all of the men and women who choose the more difficult path.</p>
<p>Have not heard anything yet, but I know that the ROTC kids are in a dorm all their own at Tech. Local news showed some film from campus and there were many ROTC cadets walking around in uniform.</p>
<p>yes, I heard an air force rotc freshman was among the victims..he was on scholarship as well...so very dreadful. The RA from GA's funeral is Friday and the vt marching band is going to be there...</p>
- here goes:</p>