Parents of the HS Class of 2012 - New beginnings

<p>The day after I dropped D at Brown for her summer program she called me with a tummy ache nerves/anxiety/adjustment or actual ache I am not sure). We forgot Tums. I was already gone from Rhode Island so I told her to go get some and some ginger ale. She did, and was fine. So if you have a comfort thing like that…but pepto pills work pretty well for that too.</p>

<p>Thanks, ohiobassmom! D is already launched but Tums are something she uses occasionally and we didn’t think to pack. I’ll mention to her that she might want to pick some up.</p>

<p>Mihcal1 - I also put in some eye drops, and elastic wrap for sprains/muscle pull, and some non-latex gloves (son has had to use them in the past in Scouts for helping treat others who were either bleeding or vomiting.)</p>

<p>Add 'em to the first care package ga!</p>

<p>We added a Nyquil so he would have something to knock him out and the Sudafed to keep him awake through class. A heating pad/cooling pad would be nice too.</p>

<p>D found out her roommate, and they’ve exchanged a couple of emails. Roommie is Korean, and most of her FB page is in that language, but her emails to D are fluent English.</p>

<p>D told me this evening that Roommie is flying IN->CA on the 17th. Alone, apparently. Move-in for triple rooms starts on the 17th, but doubles can’t move-in until the 18th. Roomie asked my D if she had any ideas for what to do for the night of the 17th. D didn’t know, so she asked me for advice.</p>

<p>I suggested that D tell Roomie to
(1) contact the housing office to see what they recommend. I think it’s unlikely that they will offer on-campus accommodations, since the housing office sent postcards specifically saying that early arrivals would NOT be accommodated. But maybe they can suggest something off-campus.
(2) network through parents’ friends, kids who graduated from her HS in previous years, and anyone else she can think of, to find a friend-of-a-friend in the Bay Area who might put her up for the night.</p>

<p>Failing either of those, I have one other suggestion:</p>

<p>DH and I will drive up with a carload of D’s stuff on the 17th, and stay at a hotel within walking distance from campus. D1 & D2 won’t be joining us until the next day (flying in the morning of the 18th). We could have D offer for Roomie to stay with us the night of the 17th. We’ve got a room with two double beds, and I’d have to call and see if we could get a rollaway for her. The question is, would be too weird to offer that Roomie stay with us in D’s absence?</p>

<p>Hi All,
Need some advice. S got his roomate info on Mon, they’ve been e-mailing and on FB.<br>
S needed to coordinate on printer, TV and rug (they have cement floors). So far every answer has been “Whatever man”, which is fine, S will just bring all his own. However last night he showed me that the guy posted “ma nigaaaar” on my S FB wall (roomate is Asian and from what is considered a pretty affluent part of our state)and e-mailed my S to ask if he “smokes”.<br>
My S is now pretty apprehensive, and I don’t know what to do.
I told him he should give it a few weeks and then speak to his RA if he thinks it’s not going to work. The issue is that they are in special interest housing, so I’m not even sure how easy it will be to get a change. Help…</p>

<p>We have zinc tablets (Cold-Eez) in ours - start sucking on them when cold season is in progress.</p>

<p>Anyone found a place to get flu shots before the end of the month? No one does them around here. Do they offer them at schools?</p>

<p>So exciting, she got hired by the Sports Medicine dept, she is going to learn to do first aid for athletes (splinting, bandaging, etc.) I’m guessing she will have to attend sporting events and wait around “hoping” for injuries. I’m guessing it was her 150+ hours of hanging around with our vet during surgery convinced them. She says that it will be much more exciting than a desk job.</p>

<p>elka - ugh. Maybe this person isn’t as bad as they seem. All you can do right now is take care of what your son wants in his room. Sometimes kids say things not getting it’s not okay. He probably thinks he’s cool and funny, and doesn’t get he isn’t coming off that well.</p>

<p>On another note s made it to the neurologist - got refills and assurances that he can’t go wrong with the neurology dept at his U. Hoping he doesn’t need an injection at school, but truly anyone could give it to him if they had the nerve. He could even do it himself. Off to the dentist next week. </p>

<p>Shopping is just about done. We rented an suv for the trip. Just a few things left to get and we’ll start packing clothes next week.</p>

<p>S admitted he’s starting to get excited. He needed to make the turn from all anxiety to excitement.</p>

<p>thanks eyemamom,
I hope so. This kid can’t be that bad, he had to do extra essays and pass an interview to get into the special interest housing. We’ll just have to wait and see.
One interesting thing is he also told my S he hasn’t sent in his immunizations info yet (which was due 7/15) so who knows, he might not even get to move in and my S will end up in a single ;-)</p>

<p>I think for first aid, I would only pack the most essentials, the stuff they may need in the middle of night which couldn’t wait until next morning - aspirins, pepto, band aid, thermometer…We packed a lot of meds for D1 5 years ago, and she didn’t use most of them. Our kids could pick up most of those things at the local drug store.</p>

<p>I posted earlier that D2 school’s housing director is complaining about FB. She is getting too many calls from students/parents about switching roommates after looking at roommate’s profile on FB. </p>

<p>micalh1 - You are offering the room out of good intention, but I think I would leave it alone. The girl’s parents may feel weird about it. Sometimes “no good deed goes unpunished.”</p>

<p>For first aid I kind of went with - what has he taken at home? I’m not going to send him with things he’s never used here. </p>

<p>However, he did like his tools that hubby got him - quite cute coming from a kid who has never fixed a thing in his life except to retro fit nerf guns.</p>

<p>I agree about having the roomie and parents figure out where this child should stay. I’d rather my child stay alone, then in a room with complete strangers.</p>

<p>tozubri -many schools offer the flu shot on-campus at the health services center. D has received the shot the past 3 years. They usually have signs around campus or notices in the school paper. Not sure if there was a charge - it may have been covered by the health service fee we pay each year.</p>

<p>micalh1 - do agree with oldfort on the hotel room offer - mainly b/c your H is also going to be staying in it - he wouldn’t want to open himself up to any weirdness - you don’t really know this kid.</p>

<p>Flu shot - it is usually offered on campus, but they offer it to kids with high risk first. D1 had mono freshman year, so she was considered high risk. If your kid had mono, pneumonia or any illness which would make him/her high risk, you may want to inform the school’s health center. D1 received email notifications every year about flu shot after she had mono.</p>

<p>Has anyone had a bad reaction to a flu shot? My S had the worst case of flu ever after his shot when he was 12, and hasn’t had one since, I think he must get one this year, but am nervous.
For first aid, we packed almost exactly what mihcal1 has on the list + an ice pack.
mihcal1 - I had the same thought as maidenMom re roommate situation. You can tell her where you are staying, maybe she can get a room at the same hotel and offer her a ride to school in the morning.</p>

<p>elka67 - I agree that it may work out fine - they don’t have to be best friends, just get along. I will say, around here at least, there are a lot of kids who call each other similar nicknames - and it’s meant like “hey, bro!”. I hate it. Hate hate hate it. And it gives me an immediate impression of a person who would use that as an endearment. BUT - it actually is very common around here- I see it on facebook pages a lot. From all kinds of kids - high achieving, not high achieving, affluent, not affluent, and everything in between. I think it’s human nature to pick up slang from the people around us, and even use it without giving it any thought. I’ve talked to my kids about it, and they don’t like it either, but they say that their generation is tearing down taboos and taking the power out of the word. Maybe. I’m not buying it, but I do usually believe words shouldn’t have so much power - think Voldemort and He Who Can’t Be Named. So really - keep in mind that it might just be a very very common verbal habit he’s picked up, that seems unoffensive amongst his peers, and don’t jump to any conclusions about him based on it. I could write 20 more paragraphs about this topic - it’s really bothered me about how commonly kids use it as an affectionate term, but I’ll just end by saying, it really is used by a lot of kids as a term of endearment with no thought to the heavy history of the word. </p>

<p>mihcal - I would imagine the school could accommodate an international student flying in a day earlier. If not, I think I agree with the consensus here that inviting her to share your room might be uncomfortable. But if you’re going that night anyway, it would be nice to recommend she stay at the same hotel and buy her dinner or offer her transportation the next day.</p>

<p>eyemamom - I’m glad your S is getting his mojo going about school starting! I’ll let my son know your S has tools in case he needs something! ;)</p>

<p>elka–</p>

<p>I would have your son take a screenshot of that facebook posting just in case ever decides that he does want to change roommates. If he needs to go to his RA or the housing director because this person is as obnoxious as he seems, it would be valuable in bolstering his case.</p>

<p>I am sorry that this idiot is casting a pall over what should be a time of happy anticipation for your son and you.</p>

<p>I hope it works out, elka. Sooo happy the roommate match here seems stable. Crossing everything that it holds.</p>

<p>My girl ordered her new laptop online last night, it should arrive by Saturday–she spent her own grad money on it, so she was a good shopper. (My husband is a techie kind of guy, so they did it together.) Today my Mom is coming up to the house to spend the day with her–it will be the last chance she gets to see her before she leaves next week.</p>

<p>And speaking of leaving, I have to move her launch date up two days–she moves in the 17th, but her dad bought their plane tickets for Weds. the 15th. Less than a week now. Ack. That girl had better start packing, eh?</p>