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yeah., well.....except that I am a NYT reader!
Please love me anyway.
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No problem at all! Your username alone shows that you somehow fell in with the wrong newspaper reading gang.</p>
<p>Now that I love you I feel like I have to change you. How about reading the NY Post? I bet you'd really like Ralph Peters and Dick Morris.</p>
<p>I'm a NYT reader too, and I hope I'm not arrogant...I love this thread; have been reading it and laughing, but haven't had anything clever to add. I think the college decision making process is our first taste, as parents, to our own relative powerlessness. At least for college, we can refuse to pay if our child makes an idiotic decision. But then we have to stand there and watch as they make stupid decisions while in college, stupid career decisions, and so on and so forth. (I mean, yeah, we can give advice over the phone, or issue ultimatums such as, 'If you do x, y or z, I won't pay for you." But that's about it.) I was confiding in a friend about the poor choices my S was making while in college (toxic girlfriend, skipping classes, drugs, to name a few), and she said: "Anyone who tells you that their 20 year old son is doing fine is either lying or delusional." Made me feel a bit better. A bit. And I just think of all the awful things I put my own parents through!</p>
<p>D would have nothing to do with the University of Connecticut (our flagship public) because "it's in the middle of nowhere." School she selected and now happily attends: Kansas State University (which is REALLY in the middle of nowhere). Go figure.</p>
<p>Refused to apply to Swarthmore because the tour guide reminded of sister; didn't want to go to a school with "People Like HER"
No Princeton because orange is an ugly color, and the font on the Princeton pennant in the counselor's office looks pretentious
Applied to Cornell because of the White Reading Room, which looked like it was out of Harry Potter.
Wouldn't get out of the car at amherst because we drove by a girl wearing a tacky, somewhat classless outfit; thus all amherst people are tacky and tasteless.
No southern schools.
Nothing in northern california, especially stanford, which is too close, except cal, which was applied to to irritate the brother, who's a stanford cardinal through and through.</p>
<p>Considering the huge amount of money Stanford has spent on renovating buildings for earthquake standards and carefully preserving the mission style of the main campus, I find it really funny that kids consider it "taco bell" style.</p>
<p>OTOH, Santa Clara is the real thing in terms of the original mission. As we learned when a niece married there - and found that there are no bathrooms in the church.</p>
<p>Nephew did his "Kid won't apply there" moment at Santa Clara when the tour guide mentioned that weddings in the mission church were so popular with grads that some girls reserved June weekends near graduation 3 or 4 years ahead. No groom by then, she could cancel....</p>
<p>It was fun catching up on this thread tonight!!!! Montegut, you are famous (kind of!!)
I agree with everyone's thoughts on the comments from people who can't see the humor in the process!!!!</p>
<p>no specific incident but feeling a definite role reversal going on. its now me saying "WHY? or WHY NOT? (to a negative response to a college suggestion) and my son saying "BECAUSE".</p>
<p>My husband and I have made a game of trying to figure out what will be the thing the tour guide says that turns S2 off and what they say that will turn him on. Rules are no talking during the tour, and we have to make our picks before son says anything about the tour. So far I have won all four of the "what will turn him off" and only one of the "what will turn him on".</p>
<p>My son would not consider Colorado School of Mines until he saw the name in print and realized that it's not "Colorado School of Minds," which he thought was an incredibly stupid name.</p>
<p>^^ Not that School of Mines is any better ;) . It always makes me think of a bunch of guys with coal dust on their faces, wearing those hard hats with little lights on the front..</p>
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I think the college decision making process is our first taste, as parents, to our own relative powerlessness.
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<p>My first indication of my relative powerlessness was potty training :D</p>
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the font on the Princeton pennant in the counselor's office looks pretentious
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<p>cleaning coffee off my keyboard......</p>
<p>Re: School of Mines....I think of the 7 Dwarves.....'hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go!"</p>
<p>mafool, I agree with the powerlessness thing.....I'd much rather go through the college search thing again than live through the potty training thing. D2 was determined that she was ALWAYS going to show who was in charge....and we've had our power struggles ever since!!!!</p>
<p>I remember reading somewhere that the only things a toddler can control is:
-what and how much he/she eats
-when and how much he/she sleeps
-where and when he/she "pees and poops"
So, of course, that is where the power struggles take place. The kid has no other "power."</p>
<p>
My first indication of my relative powerlessness was potty training
Nuh-uh! Pregnancy wins that one. Remember? Your unborn kiddo could dictate when you used the bathroom!</p>
<p>"My first indication of my relative powerlessness was potty training"</p>
<p>oh if only it was that easy!!! with son, just found underwear with his favorite cartoon character on them (mickey mouse)....then said it wouldnt be very nice to pee on Mickey and voila potty trained.</p>
<p>hmm wonder if i lay out all these college brochures and see which ones he doesnt take aim at! LOL</p>
<p>^ Sheer genius. Definitely beats floating-Cheerio target practice!</p>
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<blockquote> <p>with son, just found underwear with his favorite cartoon character on them (mickey mouse)....then said it wouldnt be very nice to pee on Mickey and voila potty trained.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>That worked for one of our daughters too, except the cartoon character was the Ariel the Little Mermaid.</p>
<p>I just love some of the tangents this thread takes! (I completely follow how potty training and college selection are related respective to our powerlessness as parents.)</p>
<p>My D did observe that one of our tour guids looked exactly like "Carrot Top" the comedian. Thereafter, we had a hard time remembering his name and just asked each other "which way did Carrot Top go" as we followed him around.</p>
<p>Just started reading this one. DD rejected one school because when we were at an information session, one of the other students who was so enthusiastic about the school was someone she really disliked from Middle School. We were done. She would not consider it and risk that that person might attend. .</p>
<p>And S1 rejected UVA before he had hardly stepped on campus - saw too many pink shirts.</p>