<p>I have to say: my daughter was a lot easier than my son. Yes, she had more clothes. (And more makeup, too, I guess, though not a lot of it in absolute terms.) Yes, she had more gotta-haves on her list. But . . . she had a list. She planned. She prepared. When we said, “Let’s ship stuff next week,” she packed it and had it ready to ship Monday. When one of her boxes didn’t get there, she had a list of what was in it, and which ten things she needed to replace immediately. And when it came time to move somewhere else, we heard about it after the fact.</p>
<p>Her brother required much more supervision, assistance, reminders, and just plain doing it for him or it wouldn’t get done. He still, at 23 (almost), needs a lot of support. And no matter how many times I tell him, “Please come up with a plan to do X by y date, because I don’t want to have a crisis about this,” at y-1 date (sometimes y+1 date) we are having a crisis about X.</p>
<p>D1 has always packed at the last minute for trips, often staying up past 2am given she needed to do laundry. I put my foot down and said I was not going to let her do this for college and made her agree to a schedule of what needed to be done each day for the week leading up to departure. Hurricane Irene complicated matters as move-in time was moved up to 7am, so I insisted the car was packed the night before (only 40 min drive). I found the lists here on CC and the check lists from BedBathBeyond quite helpful for little things that aren’t stuff you typically consider such as duct tape & a tool kit.</p>
<p>I can already see my son will be easier with regards to stuff - just throw everything in a duffel bag. He will probably be happy with taking his current duvet and whatever towels he grabs from the hall closet.</p>
<p>I would agree that my DS was easy. He did all his packing and stayed pretty close to the minimal requirements for a dormroom. He really didn’t care what sheets he had, towels, etc. My daughter is a HS junior, and I’m guessing that she will be a bit more high-maintenance!</p>
<p>However, I do remember that my boyfriend from HS was a big clothes and shoe horse. He kept all of his 20+ pairs of shoes neatly in their box. He had way more clothes, etc than me, and he brought them all to college!</p>
<p>I have so enjoyed this thread. Last year, sent D across country on a plane. She had maximum luggage, all at maximum weight, and I shipped box after box after box. We stored a lot of it over the summer, but she still came home with full suitcases and two boxes. Fast forward to launch time this year, maximum luggage (one I had to remove some stuff from as it was overweight), shipped 3-4 boxes, not sure how that happened. And she actually left behind quite a few books and clothing/shoe items. The best news is she has lucked out with two wonderfully big dorm rooms with lots of closet space. One of these years that will change and she will be up that proverbial creek with her 50+ pairs of shoes, hundreds of books she can’t live without and all other manners of important stuff. I remember her oldest brother leaving for the Navy at age 18 with one tiny overnight bag. It would not have held her makeup!</p>
<p>Love this thread! Launched DS last year via plane - DH and I went too and we got everything in checked baggage. Bought bedding etc there and then stored it over the summer. He came home for summer with everything packed in 2 suitcases.</p>
<p>I’m betting it will be a very different experience with DD next year. She’s looking at schools even farther away, so no loading up the car. She’s much more particular about the way her “space” is decorated (DS still doesn’t have a poster up), and is a bit of a clothes horse (or should I say, a girl!) Already preparing DH that it will be a bit more expensive move in with a lot more pre-shipping!!</p>
<p>Our S took a very reasonable amount of stuff, not too much or too little. He’s only an hour away at the University. What I’m finding out about him is that if he comes home, or we stop at his school, he is always nit-picking for something additional. At first, he needed a printer. Okay, that didn’t surprise me. Next, he wanted a coffee maker, and specifically, one that made only a cup at a time. No problem there. Since then, among other things, he’s requested shelves for his desk, a mirror, another electrical power strip, a throw rug, a second set of plastic drawers and also air freshener and new ink pens.</p>
<p>Sophomore year, my oldest son flew out to college on the west coat without a place to live and only took a small duffle containing his juggling equipment and a few changes of clothes. Somehow he figured out how to outfit a house once they found a place to rent. Might have helped that he was rooming with two young women. But after that, we never were involved in his packing or moving. Easy peasy.</p>
<p>i am now getting a complex- both D’s were minimalists and are both low maintenance but so are we- they do get fixated on certain things like shoes or coats or laptops however.</p>
<p>LOL, that’s really all anybody needs. Our D returned from college with hand-built stilts and a handbag full of poi ribbons. The metal clothes hamper frame from BBB had long ago turned into a kinetic sculpture for a studio class.</p>
<p>When parents raise a girl like a princess why is it surprising when she continues to act like one? Good luck in the real world, hope they think her attitude is as cute as you do.</p>
<p>I have two boys one is super low maintenance the other is just regular low maintenance. Super low moved across the country this summer with a suitcase a small duffle and a laptop. He bought a bed and dresser from Ikea when he got there. Ate off the floor for another month or two, but I hear he now has a sofa and maybe a table and chair. </p>
<p>Younger son managed to fill up an entire mommy van with stuff. He has a lot of clothes, both of the nerdy t-shirt variety, the artsy-quirky variety, and the stuff shirt business man variety. Some electronics, a box of cooking stuff, books, computer games… Except for the mini-fridge I don’t know what took up soooo much room.</p>
<p>^^ a little harsh, don’t you think, D1dilemmas? OP’s daughter may simply be a self-reliant, analytical & organized perfectionist. Sounds to me like she’s more than ready for ‘the real world’ (whatever the heck that means.)</p>
<p>We moved my D1 to college in a minivan filled to the brim with storage stuff and mini fridge we picked up closer (OK, my H idea of a mini-fridge was way too big for 4 freshman girls, oh well). And she had flown out a week earlier for orientation. Second year she wanted a futon we bought early in the summer at Target (so it wouldn’t sell out) and drove her CRV out. Futon didn’t fit so we headed back to Target to return near her (thank goodness for Target!)
S1 was packed lightly in a minivan, with him, where we could see out the window and it was barely full. He moves all of the time for a co-op in a city not where he has school. The biggest problem is the large tv that has made five roundtrips between college and co-op.</p>
<p>D1Dilemmas (although your child should be perfect and give you few dilemmas) ^…I am sorry to say that you are the “wet blanket” poster who likes to suck all the fun out of tongue in cheek postings. …this forum is a great distraction from work while eating my lunch in front of computer and the parents forum is sometimes about, well, sharing funny things about our offspring with others in the same boat. Go find a serious thread…there are plenty of them. In the meantime…I see my D’s accumulation of party dresses for homecomings/proms as a HUGE investment in social intelligence…as she lends them to friends now and at college she creates massive goodwill which will be paid out in spades when these same friends are on the Boards of major corporations/doctors/judges/…</p>
<p>In my particular ethnic group, princess-type behavior is endemic to the point of cliche, complete with its own double-edged ethnic slurring acronym. When I was young, I was practically allergic to any kind of behavior like that; it drove me up a wall; it embarrassed me. As I have aged, experience has forced me to acknowledge that the vast majority of the “princesses” I couldn’t stand grew up to be confident, strong, assertive, generous, caring women who did EXTREMELY well in the real world, and whom I was proud to know. Moreover, I think that a lot of the bile directed at princesses is generated by the sense that mere girls don’t have the right to be as demanding and as opinionated as these girls are, when what is going on is that they hold themselves and everyone else to high standards. And that’s not a bad thing at all, especially once they learn (as they do) to focus those high standards on things that matter, not just clothes, etc.</p>
<p>^ Huzzah! Count on JHS to add original fresh thinking to tired old topics such as princess-hood. We’d have to trace backwards but I’ll bet 3 recent U.S. Secretaries of State who were female might have had some teenaged attitudes that could be labeled “princess” that morphed into leadership. </p>
<p>Turning a thought to my S-1 and S-2, they really only accumulate political/artistic message t-shirts. Elder is currently stockpiled with poster propaganda art from the Russian Revolution silkscreened onto Adult Medium t’s. S-2 was thrilled last month when I mailed him 2 t-shirts from the Andy Warhol museum in Pittsburgh. These are excellent date-bait, although the elder must be careful because he’s married now.</p>
<p>A fun thread. We need another one on “Chewbacca/Bigfoot” sons. Somehow the trips to the barber disappear in college and sons come home looking like a walking carpet.</p>
<p>Both our kids were pretty easy. S was 1st. We all flew up with him. He packed two suitcases he checked & one carry on & backpack with his new laptop. D & I each also checked a bag for him. When we got there, we bought him a few more things. That was about it. D similarly didn’t bring up much. We had to fly with her too. I think she checked one bag & carried one on. We may each have checked a bag for her as well & put our stuff in our carryons. S gave her his leftover things & we bought her some stuff from Target, Costco & other stores near her U. No drama, not much precision, no matching. She took the room mate she was assigned, as did S. They were both satisfied with where they ended up being housed.</p>
<p>When S graduated in 2010, we were stunned with how much stuff they had accummulated between the 2 of them, including 3 TVs that S had acquired, multiple monitors, chairs, couch, a bed & other assorted things. Much of the stuff is D’s & I have no idea what she’ll do when she graduates this spring as it will take quite a bit of doing to move it to wherever she decides to live next. Don’t plan on shipping it or bringing it on the plane home, but who knows? Maybe we’ll be donating much of it to a shelter or letting her sell it on Craigslist or something.</p>
<p>JHS…Thank you for your positive spin on the “princess” complex that, with the proper environmental stimulant, becomes the base to build an assertive, confident woman…also, it is not necessarily limited to one ethnic group…we have the "quince</p>
<p>When parents raise a girl like a princess why is it surprising when she continues to act like one? Good luck in the real world, hope they think her attitude is as cute as you do. </p>
<p>I’m the OP - mine came as a princess!!! She was extremely organized as a toddler, would not eat oranges because they made her hands sticky (toothpicks solved this problem), thought her dress-up boa was normal attire at the grocery store, potty trained overnight once she understood pretty panties came with the deal. </p>
<p>She is a princess, not necessarily spoiled. Princess is an attitude, princess is like having built in fung shui about ones surroundings, princess is wanting to always look your best, princess is always being confident you have done your best because less than that would never have been acceptable in your mind. </p>
<p>So - Dilemma, thank you for the good wishes, she is in fact doing great. Not only do I think the confidence, attitude and approach to life is cute, the real world appears to as well! Levi Strauss hired her as an intern for a short project, she did such a great job that they recommended her to AT&T who just recently hired her as their intern.</p>