<p>Happy to report I have nothing to report! (Phew. One less thing to ruminate on…)</p>
<p>Love this thread.</p>
<p>Emaheevul07, your post made me laugh and almost cry. Brought back memories of my own dad throwing an absolute fit after bumping his head on something during my older sister’s move-in. (This back in the era before anger management was considered a virtue in middle-aged men). He’s also a real peach, god bless him. :)</p>
<p>You needed to scrub the bathroom? My son’s campus apartment was spotless when he moved in last week. </p>
<p>And they get weekly maid service. This at a state U. </p>
<p>But I did ask if parents could sit in on lectures from time to time. I haven’t done it, but I might be interested. :)</p>
<p>At the U my son attends all rooms are cleaned. They are all reinspected the night prior to move in day. If a room was overlooked it gets cleaned. I know this because son was notified through res life that his room had not been cleaned (I assume an oversight) and that he might have a few hour delay on move in day because his room had to first be cleaned. It was taken care of very early that morning because when we arrived at 9 am it had been cleaned and he was allowed to move in.</p>
<p>northeastmom, I’m so envious!</p>
<p>When I helped my DD move into her room, there was a two-foot-round spot on the (filthy) carpet that was soaked and was growing BLACK MOLD! It was obviously from a since-gone leaking refrigerator, but COME ON! (U’s, PLEASE clean the carpet in the rooms a once year or simply remove it!)</p>
<p>BTW, happy to report no health issues from that.</p>
<p>This was years ago when DS was a freshman. There was a suitcase or something that I asked DS to move since he was now a “young man” while DW insisted I do because it was heavy. While we were debating this, a young lady who was part of the move-in team the school had arranged to help the freshman, grabbed it and literally sprinted up the stairs and deposited it in his room.</p>
<p>^^That is disgusting! Couldn’t your DD have gone to res life to discuss what they could do about it? </p>
<p>Last year my son’s carpet was not without stains, but one could see that carpet was not very old. Stains might have come out with steam cleaning or even spot remover, but I don’t think that his school gets involved with that. LOL, I doubt that my son even noticed! I did not bring this to his attention (it was not something on the top of my list to mention). It looked like a decent commercial carpet. I think that if it were cleaned once a year they might be able to extend the life of it, but perhaps that is not cost effective for them.</p>
<p>On very little sleep I had to drive DS 5 hours to school so my excuse is that I was exhausted. </p>
<p>Realized when he was unpacking that we forgot light bulbs so I went to CVS to buy some. Well, once I got there I had no clue what kind to buy (floor lamp needed two bulbs) so I called DS. No answer, so I left a message but decided to buy several different types just in case. Waiting on line to pay I called again. No answer. Now I was furious. </p>
<p>Drove back to his dorm and there he was right where I left him. Asked him why he didn’t answer his phone and he said, “I was busy.” Well, I lost it and started screaming at him that did it occur to him I might be calling because it was important! Naturally only one of the bulbs sizes fit and I had to go back and get a 60 watt for the second. I was so mad I forgot to take the extra bulbs back to exchange them so $15 down the drain. </p>
<p>I was still ****ed when I got back but the roommate was there with his father so I couldn’t yell at DS anymore.</p>
<p>^ Are you sure that wasn’t my son? Sounds very familiar.</p>
<p>Her roommate’s parents brought all five of their younger children to move-in day. Two of them were under the age of three. There was absolutely NO room for us to move around. The younger children were jumping on the beds, having melt downs and trashing the room. I don’t blame the children because it must have been a long, boring day for them. However, the parents really should have gotten a babysitter for that day or had one parent stay home with them. It was a terrible day!</p>
<p>@northeastmom (#47)</p>
<p>She did! And they said they’d “send someone to look at it”. In the meanwhile, (read: before she slept one night there) we went out and bought a spray-on carpet cleaner and handled it ourselves.</p>
<p>It’s so interesting to me that many of these well-meaning folks didn’t even ask their kids if they wanted the help that they gave. At least they’re not reporting in their posts that they talked about moving in logistics. Perhaps if they just discussed it ahead of time, they would have avoided the embarrassment and the anger that, seems to me, were justified. Parents need to realize that their kids want to do stuff for themselves starting right then and there. Whether or not their independence will be entirely successful, they’re excited about it. Anyway, don’t people talk together anymore???</p>
<p>I think your point is valid that they want to start exercising their new found independence right then and there. And at the exact same moment in time, parents are trying to exercise this last opportunity to “take care of” their child.</p>
<p>It’s the perfect storm of conflicting emotions.</p>
<p>I did talk to mine. Basically I said “it will be an emotional day. I’ll try to back off. You try to cut me some slack. And you can rearrange everything when I’m gone.”</p>
<p>All in all our day went flawlessly from an emotional standpoint. But I do wonder about the state of that room right now… ;-)</p>
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<p>Since my S had only a day between working at overnight camp and heading to school, I did pack a meds/first aid box for him, and another box of “utility” type stuff (duct tape, screwdriver, replacement batteries etc.) and put the list in each box. He knew where he put the boxes. When he got sick his first week at school, I know he was glad to have the meds box, and is now quite familiar with its contents :-o </p>
<p>So, yeah, in cases where a parent ends up packing some stuff for whatever reason, it’s good to at least give them a list ;-)</p>
<p>I think my main faux pas may have been telling the roommates parents (in front of the roommate) that my DS was just about to turn 18. The roommate seemed shocked by that, and I wondered if I had caused him to make assumptions about my DS that he otherwise wouldn’t have.</p>
<p>Re: cleaning the bathroom. As was suggested above, it might be a good idea to think about or ask your S or D in advance how they would feel if, when their new suitemates/roommates walk into the room for the first time with their parents, you are in the bathroom scrubbing the toilet. </p>
<p>Maybe my D is an anomaly, but she gave me the wide-eyed mortified look when we walked in and encountered one of her new suitemates’ moms doing this. D knows how to clean her own bathroom and students are told in advance that this is their responsibility. I think she was embarrassed for her suitemate and actually a little offended that someone’s mom did this without asking. (Plus I was annoyed because I really needed to get in there and use it! :)) The bathrooms at this college are cleaned before move-in day anyway. I’m surprised that this is not the case at some colleges.</p>
<p>D1’s freshman roommate’s mom got a job near campus (90 minutes from home) and came to lunch more often that her daughter appreciated.</p>
<p>Everything was clean when we moved in as well. I would have been pretty surprised and unhappy if that had not been the case. We did bring some clorox wipes and paper towels “just in case” but they were not needed.</p>
<p>How about KID behavior on move in? I remember moving my sister in circa 1975, and when we opened the door, a huge cloud of smoke ( NOT tobacco) billowed out. Cough, cough.</p>
<p>I ended up at the same school, same dorm…</p>
<p>When we moved DD in to her freshman dorm a few years ago, the roommate at her parents were all wearing the exact same matching outfits. Gave off kind of a creepy vibe to start things off. Went downhill from there LOL.</p>
<p>My kid had a suite mate whose mother went on and on about what a promising career she had had as an actress back in her day and her somewhat tenuous link to someone famous. Same mom also openly criticized her kid for having quit a musical instrument some years back because she had such amazing talent. </p>
<p>The worst behavior I know of wasn’t at move-in day, though, it was on parents’ weekend. According to my kid, a cougarish mom attended a party in off-campus student housing and was playing drinking games with the male students! The school has since barred parents attending parties in school-owned housing.</p>