Dropped off D18 and I have to say, it was hard to feel sad when walking around such a beautiful campus. It helped that the college rolled out the red carpet for families. The joy and excitement far exceeded the sadness of saying so long. And the record breaking heat along with the humidity…it made me happy to leave for our much more arid Rocky Mountains. We left our girl knowing all is as it should be. All is well.
@Meddy Amherst has a nice webcam in the first year quad (if you ever want to be a voyeur and peek into the goings on there): https://www.amherst.edu/visiting/amhcams/quad_large
@mammoth85 Best.Person.Ever.
Thank you! 
In spite of a bit of homesickness at 2 am Thursday, she’s loving the college experience at Plymouth. We chatted again yesterday, and she was over the homesickness, and looking forward to this weekend’s music festival on campus. And I’m so glad she was smart enough to turn down the offer for a ride home and stay on campus. She said she was homesick enough that she knew it would be really rough to return.
She is one Smart Cookie!!
Son at his very first SEC game. WPS!! He is adjusting well. Lots of homework. Parents weekend is in 2 weeks and looking forward to seeing him.
Oh my. The bathrooms in D’s dorm are gender inclusive and the showers don’t have doors, only a flimsy curtain and kids need to reach outside of the curtain for their towels. And the partition between the toilet stalls is pretty low. While I’m not thrilled as a parent of a girl, I think I’d be even more concerned as a parent of a boy. I’d be scared that my kid could be accused of inappropriate looking when all he was doing was looking in the mirror as he was brushing his teeth. I don’t know what the school was thinking when it didn’t provide more privacy for the benefit of everyone. Really, I don’t think adding shower doors and an extension on the toilet partition would cost that much and could save a lot of issues.
@melvin123 Maybe I’m old fashioned but I thought it was very weird when my son was in a similar situation a few years ago at Berkeley.
My guess is your daughter is at Berkeley or maybe Brown?
@melvin123 and @dragonmom Funny story- D18 was ALL ABOUT gender inclusive bathrooms. She went on a college fly in last spring and walked into the bathroom and said it smelled like something had died. She went to wash her hands and out comes what looks to be a gigantic football player from the stall next to her. Changed her mind on the spot. :-t
@Meddy thanks for the moment of levity!
@dragonmom3, you’re right, Brown.
Here’s what I really don’t get, regardless of what gender a bathroom is for, why can’t we provide the kids a better baseline for privacy? Even back in the day when I was applying to colleges, I didn’t apply to one of them because their showers were all in a row without any curtains or anything. That just creeped me out. Fast forward to today, the whole shower curtain thing creeps me out because it’s very flimsy and is so close into the shower that I can’t imagine that the curtain won’t stick to you at some point as you’re moving around washing yourself, let alone how the curtain is hung will make it difficult not to have gaps, and how you have to hang your towel outside of the curtain area. Wah! I keep repeating to myself, let it go, it’s up to her now, let it go.
Here’s my report on how things are going after two weeks. D18 flew home Fri to go with us to Orlando on Sat for Bama’s first football game (it was a blowout). She looked great, loves her three roommates, and is doing fine. We couldn’t have asked for a better start.
@melvin123 what does your DD have to say? I know when it comes to my DD, she is far less concerned over inclusive bathrooms than I am. I’m curious what your DD’s take is on this?
First care package is on its way! DH and I had fun at the grocery store picking up a few of her favorites and then we went thru the pantry and took all her things that will be dead by Christmas break out and tossed into her box. A few packages of oatmeal, fruit snacks and coffee coated espresso beans mixed in with the socks and mug cake mix
@snowflakedogmom - Where do you get the mug cake mix? I want to get this week for care package. Have heard about them, but not yet seen them.
@SnowflakeDogMom the issue for my D relates to the lack of privacy. My D has never had to shower in a public area before and she feels pretty uncomfortable with not having a door to the shower. Having guys in the bathroom at the same time she’s showering has just acted to highlight the issue.
@melvin123 - That is a tough situation. Seems like getting new shower curtains at least would help everyone. And it was a surprise to find that out? Geeez.
Wow, @melvin123, I so feel for your DD. Wow! Mine is experiencing the communal bathroom for girls w/ shower curtains and isn’t too thrilled with it. She reported last night she is getting used to it, but would prefer total privacy. A gender inclusive scenario would so not work!
Hope your DD can adjust, or it’s going to be a long year!
I need some help and I thought I would start here.
D started classes today. At orientation, we were told not to buy books until the first class in case any last minute changes were made.
So now D needs to buy books.
Can anyone suggest a simple way to decide to buy or rent?
The school bookstore is associated with Barnes and Noble but I’m thinking D should check Amazon, too.
Does anyone have any pointers regarding deciding whether to rent or buy?
Any rental pitfalls we should beware of?
@bjkmom , any thoughts? I remember you saying you saved a lot by looking around.
Interesting about the bathrooms…
It’s puzzling to me, like it feels we could be putting innocent kids in a bad position while enabling perverts…and the pervert/creep could be the one in the shower.
I was worried about the showers at D’s dorm when we toured because of the lack of doors between the hallways and the shower rooms and toilet rooms. But at least the shower doors extend down to the floor and up high toward the ceiling.
When we were moving in, I could hear voices clearly in the hall from inside the toilet stall because of the lack of doors. Does that mean sounds and smells from the toilet stalls can reach the hallways? Yuck.
@MACmiracle Your school’s Barnes & Noble will probably price match Amazon.
@chercheur Thanks!