<p>I have finally calmed down over the lists and planning activities – there really isn’t that much left to do: Couple of text books aren’t in yet, summer visit to the dentist (tomorrow), car insurance adjustment (DS won’t have one), test the skype connection, haircut.</p>
<p>The only major thing left to do is decide what One Big Thing to accidentally (intentionally) forget to pack. DS will need to take the bus to Target or walk to the strip to buy it, and then smugly lecture me later about my failings. </p>
<p>Win-win: I win because he takes an early step toward independence by buying necessities, and he wins because he gets to lecture me about my shortcomings (while I smile and apologize).</p>
<p>What One Big Thing should I leave out of his boxes? </p>
<p>I’m leaning toward socks, because it’s funny, but that might be hard to “forget.” Maybe his backpack?</p>
<p>Or, maybe share a good story about what you forgot to bring, and the hilarity that ensued.</p>
<p>Well, on the band trip this last year I did forget something. Mind you we are on a bus and no stops planned at any store. I forgot deodorant! SMH! My good friend was my roomie on the trip. Thankfully, she had just bought some and had two. Whew!!! However, she forgot her pj’s. thank goodness I had us booked in a room with 2 beds! She found some at Lambert’s, Home of the Throwed Roll. They said “Hot Buns” on the seat. </p>
<p>What about toothpaste? Something that he is going to miss right away and will want to high tail it to the store to purchase. And he will have to sort thru all kinds as well to find what he uses/wants.</p>
<p>Not an Alabama road trip, but a back to college story none the less.</p>
<p>On the trip back to campus after Freshman year XMas break, DD1 realized 1/2 way there (2 hours from home) that she had left her DORM KEY at home! - let’s just say DH, who was driving her back, was a little unhappy.</p>
<p>They pulled over and called me. We decided the best thing was for me to meet them, so DH turned around and I headed out. We met at the midpoint (1/4 point?) and I handed over the key. This little faux pas added over 2 hours to DH’s trip - yes, he still drove back the same day. </p>
<p>Every trip back to campus since has included a check list with “DO YOU HAVE YOUR KEYS?” at the top of it.</p>
<p>I formerly used a paper list, but then found as I went along there were always improvements for it. I found a “re-usable” electronic packing list app for my iPad, and it has been very helpful. Most of my items do not change, but when I find something I need to add, it is handy.</p>
<p>I myself on various trips have left deodorant, toothpaste, etc. all at home. Not fun.</p>
<p>Leaving keys behind after the Winter break must be common, and is a more difficult problem to solve if the student flew back to UA (i.e., not driving distance). I’m pretty certain the student can get a temporary key from the RA/building services, until you mail their set to them.</p>
<p>As some of the veterans on this forum know, a few years ago my otherwise bright son forgot to pack a valid passport. He attempted to check in for a flight in Birmingham at XMAS break that connected to a flight to Vancouver, B.C., where he was going to meet us for a family ski trip. He was unceremoniously informed that his passport had been expired for six months and told to get out of line.</p>
<p>Days of frantic phone calls, a desperately Fedexed birth certificate, a mad dash to the Atlanta passport office (barely made when the dear lad realized Georgia is in the Eastern time zone), and half a dozen rebooked flights ensued. When he finally arrived at the ski resort, he was embraced in the lobby by his older brother, who simultaneously shouted loud enough for all the assembled guests to hear, “You’re an idiot!”</p>
<p>The moral of the story . . . well, you get it. :)</p>
<p>One thing that I have been telling all of my friends who are sending their kids off this fall is: Two items that most people do not think about are (1) a locking cable for their laptop and (2) a small lockbox. Daughter was in the Honors dorm last year and a friend in the same dorm building had her brand new laptop stolen right out of her dorm room – while she was taking a nap. One end of the cable plugs into the laptop and needs a combination to get it out. The other end secures around a desk leg or something similar. Daughter’s was secured to a set of shelves that were on top of her desk. If someone wanted to steal her laptop they would have to walk out with it attached to those shelves. The small lock box is for things like passport (which can be used as backup identification if purse/wallet is lost/stolen), photo copies of all things kept in wallet (driving license, debit/credit cards, etc.) and photocopies of things such as health insurance and prescription cards, a list of emergency contact phone numbers and addresses, etc.</p>
<p>Yep, go straight to your fave copy center (adults should do this, too!) and empty the contents of your wallet onto the glass and take a copy (front and back). That way, you know exactly what was taken…you’ll have all the #s in 1 spot.</p>
<p>My S took a locking cable for his laptop and I’m sad that I had opened it (it was expensive, relatively), because he never used it, and it was a waste of money. Unless you are going to a public place (think library) where you might dash out for a second to go pee…OR, I have seen students leave their entire backpacks on seats in dining halls while they go load up their plates…um, NO, NO, NO. Yer asking for trouble if you do that.</p>
<p>You cannot be too cautious…but if your student won’t lock things up, there’s nothing we as parents can do.</p>
<p>Julie’s story serves as a reminder that students should be warned to lock the door to their private rooms when they are asleep – not because they don’t trust their suitemates, but because they don’t know if the main door to the suite will be unlocked at some point while they are asleep. A couple of years ago there was an issue with an intruder entering unlocked suites. The UP eventually caught this person, if I recall correctly, but the lesson is clear – the door to the suite and the doors to the private rooms should be locked when the residents are absent or asleep.</p>
<p>yes, paying…can’t stress this enough! it is very difficult in the super suites sometimes to tell if roommates are in their rooms (w/ doors shut) or not. Our 4 boys drilled it into each other to ALWAYS lock the suite door, even if all 4 are inside together, or even if 1 steps out for just a moment knowing that others are still in there. ALWAYS lock the suite/dorm door. It took awhile to get them all in synch about it, but the majority of the time I do believe they complied with this suite-imposed rule for themselves.</p>
<p>Bring a padlock for the locking cabinet that is in your student’s suite. The cabinets are in most/all super suites.</p>
<p>Remember your retainer!</p>
<p>You can conveniently forget to pack the gaming system. Perhaps your student could “earn” it with good grades. I know it sounds mean. :(</p>
<p>Why don’t you make him responsible for his own packing list? Maybe he won’t forget anything.</p>
<p>Re retainers…my S has the worst luck, right? Within a few weeks at UA, he decided to do some parkour* by leaping over a fence, which clipped his feet as he cleared it, and he landed right on his hip pocket where his retainer case was, with the retainer still in it. Fortunately we had ordered a spare before he even went to UA, for reasons such as this. Then it was a nerve wracking few months before he was home at Christmas to get yet another one made in case anything else happened…</p>
<p>*he doesn’t really do parkour…but it sounds way cooler than merely tripping over the decorative chain “fence” 12 inches off the ground along University Blvd.</p>
<p>Why don’t you make him responsible for his own packing list? Maybe he won’t forget anything.</p>
<p>Ha!</p>
<p>I’ve had two sons go to college. One would have done fine making his list. The other one would have arrived with literally nothing but the clothes on his back…and maybe the Bama coffee mug he bought.</p>
<p>My D was responsible for packing all of her stuff. She is now responsible to go on the search for boxes in order to pack as much as she can this weekend so we can move her Friday from dorm A to dorm B. She was not sure how to obtain them as normally we just save some from the office and bring them home. When I instructed her to get boxes I gave her several options to obtain them:
- Ask Publix
- Ask a local beer/wine/liquor store (meaning I just gave my 18yo permission to find one)
- Buy some at the storage places, UHaul, etc
- Buy plastic totes at Target.
We shall know on Thursday if she was able to complete this mission.</p>
<p>Ask a local beer/wine/liquor store (meaning I just gave my 18yo permission to find one)</p>
<p>She won’t be allowed in to ask. Have to be 21 to step in the door.</p>
<p>I’m sure that if I had girls, this never would have been an issue. </p>
<p>Girls (the future moms of the world) are hard-wired to figure out every shirt, shoe, purse, toiletry, hair product, etc, that they’re going to need for the next year. </p>
<p>Boy (the future dads of the world) are hard-wired to think that drawers and cabinets are automatically stocked with needed stuff and that TP holders magically appear with new rolls.</p>
<p>:) Yes, I want her to be turned down at the package store because of her age
I’m mean like that 
</p>
<p>This is if she even attempts to go find boxes. I can already tell you what is going to happen. She will go to Target and buy plastic totes. When she realizes she can get FREE boxes someday and not spend a dime, I will know that I succeeded as a parent :)</p>
<p>Over the years, I have accumulated many vacation and business travel I-forgot-to-pack stories. My (then) wife used to say, “I don’t know what he’ll forget, but I know it’ll be a funny story when he gets home.”</p>
<p>In the late 80s, on a trip to DC for a very formal and small meeting with someone (who will remain nameless but is in most decent American history books), I realized an hour before my meeting I had not packed dark socks. This was long before 24 hr stores were common, and I was downtown without a car anyway. My choice was to go with white cotton gym socks crammed into my loafers, or bare ankle. (I was too young to realize the front desk could help).</p>
<p>I went with white socks, and I’m sure I was glowing red with embarrassment. When this powerful and famous person saw me in my navy blue pin stripes, power red tie, and extra thick white socks, he burst out laughing and shared a few stories of his own. It ended up being a good ice breaker. </p>
<p>DS may as well start his I-forgot adventures at Bama, even if it’s fixed with a simple day trip to Target. Since he’s only a man, and he is his father’s son, there will be many more ahead of him.</p>
<p>If you are looking for boxes, a great place is the shoe stores in town. Like Rack Room, they get shoes in usually weekly and they come packed about 6-8 pairs in a nice thick great sized box. They break them down pretty quickly, but if you call most will hold some for you.</p>
<p>LOL- Bill- I love the part about your son discussing your shortcomings. Get your act together, lol.</p>
<p>I had my first child earlier in my life and I was completely (and happily) ignorant. I let her drive off in her own car that she had packed herself and it all worked out beautifully. </p>
<p>I don’t know if my advanced age has anything to do with it- but I fear that my middle child would, as M2CK puts it- drive away with the clothes on her back thinking that her belongings will magically appear in the drawers at the dorm. </p>
<p>As the mom of a boy (my youngest) who is extremely bright but waaayyy too much into video games I think you should conveniently forget to pack the game system, if applicable.</p>