<p>Putting all the stress of getting accepted into college to the side! What are the fun things you did to help your daughter get ready for college? Did you help her shop for dorm room items, etc?</p>
<p>Yes, I did help them (2 daughters) shop for dorm room stuff and any other related items and it was a lot of fun. This got repeated later when they expanded to getting apartments. It is an exciting time to prep for college once the college decision is made. Enjoy it!</p>
<p>It was one of my favorite times with my D! I was probably more excited than she was initially! Remember no matter how much they have waited for this, when it comes, there is a bit of hesitation. But we had a great time just picking up a few things at a time. Simple things and more fun and practical things like bedding… which probably only got made the day I helped her the first time we moved her in! I would also buy some little things and pack them as a little surprise when she unpacked…a bag of gummy worms (her favorite) popcorn packs and a dvd, journal with the first page with a note from me, whatever will bring a smile to her face.</p>
<p>Have fun with it, but be sensitive to the ambivalence she may be going through.</p>
<p>Right now we are excitedly waiting for dorm info, and I expect we’ll spend many happy hours poring over the possibilities. Shopping will come later, when we know exactly what she’ll need. Grandma has generously offered to pay for furnishing her room, so all 3 generations will get to share in the fun!</p>
<p>I took my daughter to school last fall. We live far from her school so we flew to her college town a few days before orientation and stayed in a hotel near campus. We shopped for her dorm room and enjoyed the time together. I enjoyed spending the last few days with her, and she was happy to stay in the hotel before beginning dorm life. We also spent some time over the summer buying clothing suitable for the northern climate.</p>
<p>D’s finishing her 3rd year as we speak, but I will forever remember fondly the bittersweet summer of 2006. We shopped stores and the web a little each week, ate at our favorite places, went to lots of movies (she worked at a theater that summer), packed & organized.</p>
<p>Mothers of daughters are so lucky. Look around in the stores when you buy the dorm stuff- the lonely moms have sons. Sigh.</p>
<p>LOL. Yeah, shopping for stuff with my son was always me saying, “What about a _<strong><em>?” or “Which color do you like?” or “Do you think you’ll need a _</em></strong>?” And his response was always, “I don’t really care that much.”</p>
<p>But we dutifully went through the motions and got him (minimally) set up in his dorm room.</p>
<p>This fall my daughter’s moving into her first dorm room, and I think it will be a little more fun helping her with that.</p>
<p>Two summers ago we did the dorm shopping experience. D was nervous and only wanted to do it in small bits. Totally understandable. The funny thing, and one for the stories for when she is grown, was the first thing that she excitedly and determinedly put into the IKEA shopping cart-- a pack of 100 straws! Still can’t figure out why. I don’t think she cracked that box to this day!</p>
<p>Too funny, franglish. My daughter grabbed a 2quart Britta water jug and filter. It now gathers dust in the attic!</p>
<p>We have paid for her best friends airline ticket to come with us to Aruba. My daughter graduates on June 5th, on the 6th we all head to Aruba. This was a surprise. We havent bought stuff to decorate the dorm but will throughout the summer. My daugher has joined her college’s facebook and attended a couple of sessions down at the school. She met some other kids and have preselected some room mates.</p>
<p>My DD and I had SO MUCH FUN the summer before she left for college! We checked out websites, shared catalogs, did price comparison shopping in the stores. It was a blast! It brought back memories when my mother, now deceased, and me went shopping for college. I could almost hear her words of wisdom as I explained the need to pay bills on time, fill out forms, determined which bank offered the best rates for checking accounts and credit card. I was pleased to note DD was able to ferret out the best deals, and still have fun in the process. That summer I KNEW she was ready for college-the question really was–was I ready for HER to go to college!?!</p>
<p>I am so excited to shop with my D! We will probably shop and ship, since we are in NY and she is going to school in FL. Any tips from the “pros” here?</p>
<p>You may already know this, but if not…IKEA has a special program whereby you pick out the items you wish to buy-and they then scan those items into a computer-you do not pay for the items-rather you pick them up at an IKEA nearest the college your child will be attending and pay for them at that time. That way you do not have to ship anything! You can also change your mind when you get to the store. Be sure to start saving the 20% off coupons, too. We were able to use more than one coupon-I do not know if that is the norm or an exception. I hope this helps!</p>
<p>^^ Thanks APOL! I didn’t know IKEA did that, but I do know about Bed Bath and Beyond doing the same thing. Where do you get 20% off coupons for IKEA?</p>
<p>We did the BB&B version of that last year for my son. Since his college is 3000 miles away, and with the limited luggage you can bring when flying these days, it was a real boon to be able to “pre-shop” at a nearby BB&B, and then pick it all up near his college the day before he moved into his dorm.</p>
<p>Shopped for clothes. Since D was going to be going to school in NYC at a school with an extensive orientation (including a mock cocktail party in the MOMA sculpture garden and a swing dance party on the Intrepid) she needed dresses, shoes. </p>
<p>And since we had a financial aid offer in hand, I was able to invest in some things I’d be holding off on: new rain coat, etc.</p>
<p>Had she gone to a rural campus it would have been much cheaper, but it sure was fun.</p>
<p>Now that’s she’s graduating from college she has asked for a makeover at a NYC salon as her grad gift (well, um, one of them.) I’m a little scared because she’s had waist length hair since she was four when it first grew that long.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info on IKea!</p>
<p>Not exciting with my mother. Stress levels were very high- my mother got so anxious in making sure that my brother and I had everything that we needed that us kids could never wait for her to get out of our hair!!! She hated going clothing shopping with us because we didn’t usually like what she picked. She did love going kitchen-shopping though since she’s a big cook and we just kept our mouths quiet.</p>
<p>Then after she drove away, we said, “Mommy, come bacccckkk!!!”</p>
<p>D goes to school in MA. D and I flew into Manchester, NH, went shopping tax-free and drove the loot into MA. Then we realized that D needed some more dorm stuff, and we went to a Target near her college. We met several of her future classmates shopping together with their parents, and a bunch girls from other colleges, also shopping with their parents. I did notice that we have not seen any boys :)… D loves going shopping with me, because I generally let her pick what she likes, of course, within our budget.</p>