Wonder if anyone else is experiencing this phenomenon where your college bound darling has turned from the apple of your eye to the know-it-all, I’m an adult!, insert eye roll when you speak darling…or am I the only fortunate parent? insert sarcasm
I think I’m much better now 3 weeks before college than when I was 12, hopefully my parents agree.
The college told us about this phenomenon during the parents’ portion of orientation, which was scheduled in early summer rather than right before the start of the semester. They had a name for it which I don’t remember. It is apparently the student’s way of dealing with the impending separation from their home and parents. Luckily ours had very little of this behavior.
We also saw no sign of it last year when D1 began college. Nor did we experience the multiple daily phone calls and texts the school assured us were right around the corner. We were lucky to hear from her once a week!
@tonymom, sorry to hear you’re going through this. I don’ think it’s uncommon, and things will probably swing back toward normal about a month or so after your kid starts school. Hang in there!
I should clarify…kid is generally good but we’ve had a distinctive shift to the “I’m independent”…which is all well and fine and healthy. I do think it’s their way of starting the process of separating so as to make the real separation easier. Still don’t enjoy having my nest sullied 
College bound DS is fine. HS freshman DD however is quite sassy. Can I ship her off instead?
I’ve heard it described as “spoiling the nest”.
“Students deal with anxiety about the future by postponing applications and going through senioritis with an academic slump, a blah attitude and aggressive bids for independence”.
My DD14 went through this after the Christmas break her senior year. We really started to look forward to shipping her off to college! However, after about a month at school, her attitude (and ours) completely reset. Now’s she’s fun to have back home for the summer and breaks.
It really is a normal way for some kids to handle the anxiety of leaving home. Once they go to college, it completely goes away (at least it did in our case).
Hang in there! :)>-
One of my wife’s aunts says the purpose of the teen years is so parents want their kids to leave the house. 
YES!!! DD17 has been miserable, especially right before that time of the month. And, it’s been on two fronts as DS12 has also become Mr. SassyPants EyeRoller. I want my sweet little boy back! I can’t deal with this!
To echo @saillakeerie, one of my favorite quotes (I have no recollection of the source but wish I did) is the following: “God made teenagers so that when they are ready to leave we are ready to see them go.” I have found comfort from this oh so often.
My college-bound daughter is doing OK, but my 21-year-old son, the one going to Beirut, Lebanon for college, is not. 11 days to go!!! My kitchen will stay clean for more than five minutes!!
Soiling the nest. It’s a thing. Though our kid ditched us for the summer, so we’re not exposed to it. But I’m hearing stories from families with in-the-nest-about-to-fly kids. Nonstop snark.
yep - HS counselors warned us about this. Its much easier for your child to leave an unhappy home than a happy home.
I’m going back for my second year in three weeks and I am aware that my attitude has not been top-notch. I am hoping that my parents don’t take it too personally, since this summer has been pretty crumby (disappointing internship with long hours, unexpected breakup days before birthday, zero friends in this city). It’s not being home and spending time with them that’s getting to me, it’s the other things.
Going back for my sophomore year in six days and I haven’t done anything to make my parents angry - that’s been my incoming-HS-freshman brother. But this summer was honestly a little below-average because I applied to jobs that I never heard back from and the only person I’ve hung out with all summer was an out-of-town kid I met in my CC summer class. I haven’t been able to hang out with my HS friends nearly as much as I anticipated (some have been on vacation), and a few of them are about to begin their freshman year. Needless to say, I’ll be VERY happy to get back down next Wednesday.
We’re getting a bit of back & forth – sometimes all love & hugs and mature young man; sometimes we get angry, self-absorbed inconsiderate ass. Luckily it’s a lot less of the latter, but it makes me realize how lucky we’ve been so far with him!
Son is getting tired of us telling him what he needs for his first apartment. He is ready to go back and I am looking forward to having food in the fridge once again.
I haven’t seen too much of it, but my S rolls his eyes when I start in on the “you have to make good choices in the dining hall” lecture.
Really, you cannot eat pizza and ice cream every night. “Mommmmmm stoppppppp!!!”
With my oldest, he was 21 and I think he was past all that and very ready.
Maybe if the parent “forgets” to pay the first semester tuition the independent student will have a change of heart.
It’s a real thing, and were it a competition, my oldest would have been a top contender for the title!