<p>Best of luck to your son, Consolation. I hope Career Day went well for him! My S seems content with his job at a membership association. I’m hoping he will coast there for a bit while saving some money and pondering his future.</p>
<p>Sounds like an age-appropriate thing to do, geezermom. And the main thing: he’s employed! :)</p>
<p>Thanks, Consolation, for waking up this thread! So your S is almost finished at Columbia. Will he try to stay in NYC?
My S has been enjoying this year as a HS physics teacher despite all the additional hoops that first-year teachers have to jump through these days, at least compared to when I first started teaching many years ago. He loves the kids and seems quite beloved. He’s learned a lot about teaching a lab science (did his student teaching in math), and just opened an IRA–what a maturing year it has been for him! In addition to saving money for retirement, he splurged on a spring break trip to visit his little sister in college in CA. They kept sending me texts with photos of the great meals he was treating her to. I’m happy that they’ve established a close relationship; it wasn’t always clear when they were both living at home that that was ever going to be!</p>
<p>Wintriest, my S opened an IRA, too. I like this stage of his life! Could that be because he takes responsibility for himself, and so I’m thinking we did okay as parents? 
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<p>D is going gangbusters at work (a Big 4 accounting firm) - she’s made it through 2 busy seasons now, received wonderful performance appraisals, and is in line for an early promotion this fall. She loves the work, too, even though it’s demanding and time-consuming.</p>
<p>On the downside - she’s now pondering whether or not she should move in with her long-term boyfriend. They have been dating for about three years, and he seems nice enough, but he’s also immature and often thoughtless. Every few months he “decides” he’s not sure how he feels about her, or he thinks they need to break up, or he’s feeling depressed and takes out his bad feelings on her. I know I sound like a typical mom - but I don’t think he’s good enough for her! (Maybe if he got some counseling or some help for his depression, I’d feel differently.)</p>
<p>I think this is a disaster waiting to happen. She knows I’m not wild about the idea. I have told her my feelings (…several times…) but she also knows that she will always have my love and support. On balance, he’s not AWFUL and I think that some day he may turn into a perfectly fine young man; I just don’t want him to break her heart in the interim.</p>
<p>Gahhhhhhh…</p>
<p>Moving in with a person who has a pattern of threatening to leave her does not sound like a good idea to me.</p>
<p>Great that things are going so well with her job. :)</p>
<p>He got a job with a newspaper!!! I’m so excited and happy for him. 
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<p>Graduating next week with a job will be wonderful indeed.</p>
<p>Fantastic news, Consolation! Congratulations to your son.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your son, Consolation! I haven’t check this thread in a while and I was happy to see the good news. I hope the rest of the 2008 grads are doing well. My D is loving life in NYC. Her consulting job has it’s ups and downs, but it’s going well over all. </p>
<p>Good luck to your S, consolation. I’m sure he knows how tough the newspaper field is these days! I have a nephew who was in journalism (masters from Northwestern) and now does web design. It has been quiet around here, my D is still at her consulting job in DC, long-term boyfriend is starting grad school in the fall (still in DC though), they moved from a studio apt to a 1 bedroom.</p>
<p>I got a call this weekend that D and her boyfriend of 4+ years are engaged! Of course she called while I was using my phone GPS to return a U-Haul trailer in New York, having just moved my S into an apartment. So I had to ignore the call until I could call her back. Her boyfriend apologized for the timing of his proposal occurring during S’s big move. I’m sure it will be a year or 2 before they actually get married.</p>
<p>Congrats, mamabear!!! </p>
<p>My HS 2008’er left his job of 2 yrs to take a great opportunity on the other coast. Bummer that he didn’t get his company match portion of the 401K savings, as he would have had to have stayed 3 yrs to be vested for that, but the oppty across country was fabulous so off he went. And he loves it.</p>
<p>Congrats, @mamabear1234! Looking forward to the wedding thread. :)</p>
<p>Yes, @jym626, I wish I had the thousands of unvested employer contributions I left behind at my first couple of jobs. But these opportunities have to be seized when you’re young!</p>
<p>Thanks. I am NOT looking forward to being a mother of the bride. I suggested to her a few years ago that she should elope. Since she lives far from us, I think I won’t have a whole lot to do with the planning, except of course we will give her money for the reception. That what my parents did for us when I got married - H and I paid for the dress, flowers, photographs, they covered the reception.</p>