My first was high-achieving and athletic and I was stressed out of my gourd. He got admitted into some top schools, like Amherst and Wash U. After he fell ill with schizophrenia and had to drop out of college, my priorities changed and I didn’t get as stressed out with his younger siblings. They were both different from him and different from each other. At least my youngest ended up going to a school I had liked a lot during the first college search, so it wasn’t all a waste.
Yeah, then there’s the first job search, which the younger two kids are experiencing at the same time since the middle kid took two and a half gap years before going to college. Ack. I think it’s even more stressful than the college search, but the good thing is my kids are older and pretty much handling it on their own, except when they ask me for advice occasionally.