We’re moving the twins next week. Thing 1 is first on Thursday (UT Arlington) which is local for us and then we leave early Friday morning to take Thing 2 to UT Austin.
The boys are so ready to leave lol. I’m
not seeing any nervousness or anything, they both seem ready and excited.
We’ll be the same distance from our S23 at Berkeley. Our older two attended college on the other side of the country. I must admit it’s so much easier, mentally and logistically, to have an in-state kid. Will be really curious to see how often S23 decides to pop in for dinner or a weekend sleep-a-thon! He can get here on BART, so it will totally be up to him.
Yeah, our S23 is our first “close” college kid. Being closer was one of his deciding factors among his finalists after acceptances because he seems to value at least the option to be able to come home for a weekend. It’s about a 20 minute subway followed by 1 hour train away. I’m fairly skeptical he actually does it, and if he doesn’t that’s great because it hopefully means he’s doing something better with new friends. But it’s nice to have the option and certainly makes everything easier than it was with his older siblings.
Yes, I think even just knowing he can come home if the pressure gets too much, even if he never actually does it, will be a big help for my son keeping his anxiety in control.
My D17 went to college about 3 hours away and had her car. She brought her roommates for weekends pretty often to get some home cooking and moming, I loved that!
We leave a week from Sunday to make the long trek to D23’s campus. She is the youngest of four but I am very excited for her as she has always been very independent and now it’s her turn! Our route to Chicago is not direct. S21 is taking our “kid” car to campus but it’s an 8 hr drive to Cincinnati from here. He can’t fit everything (will be in an off-campus apt). S19, who just graduated in May, is driving with him since he’s never driven that far alone. S19 will help him move in then fly home. We will then drive to Cincinnati a week from Sunday with the larger things he can’t fit (along with D23 and all her stuff), stay the night in Cincinnati, then make our way to Chicago the next day. We are staying the night there, move D23 in on Tuesday and plan to leave Chicago by mid-late afternoon. We will head back by way of Cleveland, with a quick stopover at my sister’s for a free night’s stay 
then leave early Wed for the six hour drive back to MD. So covering a lot of ground in four days!
I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone since graduation. I feel like I haven’t even bought much for D23 - one, b/c after doing this three times already, I know not to bring too much and two, we fortunately have some things we can reuse. We have S19’s fridge, as well as the twin mattress topper both sons used (passed down to S21 when S19 moved off campus to a full size bed and now S21 will have a full size bed). So that saved some money! She also decided to take her bedding from home that she loves so didn’t have to buy a new comforter.
We won’t, however, have an empty nest. S19 has decided he wants to join the Navy and plans to take the test for OCS (Officer Candidate School). That can be a long process. He has been working 40+ hrs at his old summer job, but they just offered him a FT position with benefits. They do know he plans to go to OCS and are very supportive and said he can stay as long as he needs to. So he will live at home to save money while he goes through the process.
So looks like it will be a little while before it’s just me and dh here, but that’s ok! 24+ years of having kids at home, another 6-12 months…no big deal. 
@4kids4us from bgbg4us – i Love your specific exact driving and moving plans! It sounds complicated, and probably took awhile to fit together, but it’ll all work out. I think planning those things is all part of the fun!
good luck to your S19!
We leave Monday for drop off with a college visit for little bro 23 on the way. Packing and laundry and prep galore. Where did summer go?
Here’s a poignant and well written piece on what many parents here are, or will soon be, going through from a somewhat surprising source.
That made me cry! S23 is packed and ready to go. We drop him off tomorrow.
I wish our drop off was on a Sunday! Her move in is Tuesday, so two vacation days off work for me.
Two weeks from today for us. Third time and only 90 minutes away, so probably not as emotional as the others (but we’ll see).
That was beautiful. Thanks for sharing. 
My kid met 1-1 with her advisor. The advisor had already created her schedule so she got all her classes.
Advisor met with the four of them as a group and then individually.
We had a family bonding trip to the beach and said yes a lot to what 23 wanted to do. This meant shopping, which spouse detests but weathered well. 
Lots of medical appointments to check things out, stocked up on meds, moving 23’s bank account to a bank on campus, arranging support for ADHD. From posts above, it sounds like we are all doing similar things.
We are taking one more trip before 23 moves into the dorm later this month.
Like one of you above, we are letting some things slide if they aren’t done and figure it’s 23’s problem to solve. 
Why move banks? We have not had an in person bank in 20 years.
Can’t speak for @Kombucha22 but we’ve kept in-person banks as part of our banking for several reasons.
It helped the kids when they were little to understand saving and how banks worked by having them take their savings to the bank each week to deposit.
It made money more understandable and tangible - for my kids it helped immensely in ways that all electronic wouldn’t have. They still budget by going to the bank to get their weekly money - if they did it online it would be a lot easier to lose track (not all of them are good at keeping their register up to date)
They like knowing the bankers and the tellers and being able to ask for help and information.
D20 finally went mostly online with her banking when she did study abroad for 15 months. But she still maintains an account at a brick&mortar location for reason #3.
D23 wants the ability to go to a full service bank for her banking needs (in person as an option) and not to solely rely upon online accounts.
As in a checkbook register? Haven’t had one of those in years 
We belong to USAA and Navy Federal. And there have never been any branches near us.
Yup, a checkbook register. We taught the kids about money “old school style”. We found it helped them really understand the ins and outs of money management and not get surprised by how quickly the money can be gone/spent when you use a debit or credit card.
And just like that, D23 is ensconced in her dorm room.