<p>S went to camp out of state every summer starting age 7. His adjustment to college was seamless. </p>
<p>He was used to meeting new people from all over the world (the camp has kids from as far away as Japan). He was used to “communal living.”</p>
<p>He was used to airports and all that entailed. He was used to having to think about laundry. </p>
<p>After HS, S was a counselor at the camp. He told me that he started to see the importance of keeping your “nest” in order and in a condition where you could easily find what you needed when he had to deal with 8 ten year old boys in a cabin.</p>
<p>My S didn’t go off to many camps–did one for a week with Boy Scouts. He had a seamless adjustment to college as well. We have tried to raise him to be independent and he has always been very self-reliant. He has flown in airports since he was 6 months old and my sister said his cousin said he was very comfortable & in charge when cousin & he & his sister were travelling together to Taiwan this summer, with a stopover in Japan. My sisters’ kids have also managed to adjust pretty easily to college with very little camp experience (tho they call their mom much more often–they have been raised to be co-dependent).</p>
<p>Last year during junior year of HS, D went on a Washington DC trip with the Political Club. Midway through the trip I get a phone call from her, “I forgot my sunglasses and I’m bored and want to shop, I’m looking at the map and it says ‘National Mall’ but I don’t see anything but a park, do you know EXACTLY where the National Mall is?” — I had to laugh at her and tell her to go to the nearest monument giftshop for sunglasses and it’s NOT that kind of MALL!</p>
<p>Kelona: Oh, they are prepared, but the unexpected questions come anyway, and you may learn to be grateful for them. D has been away for summer programs and this year worked as a camp counselor and says she doesn’t need to call home like everyone else does because she’s “not homesick because she’s used to being away from home.” She does call when she needs a consultant; the most recent “need to know” being how long you can keep a certain type of pasta salad before it goes bad.</p>
<p>When H and I were first married I sent him to the store for lemon juice, eggs, and milk. I explained where each item could be found; saying the eggs and milk would be in the same location, in the back of the store. </p>
<p>He came home with lemon extract and eggnog. :D</p>
<p>The week before he left, he started cooking some bacon. He put in the microwave…no plate, no paper towels. Caught in time, I said, "What are you going to do…get a new microwave every time?</p>
<p>JJ, same story with my boys. Am doing better with #4, but you know, he was always more aware and interested. I think it is common situation with some kids, especially boys, and some are wired that way more than others. My youngest is a bit ditzy too, and I am working with him more in terms of organization and pragmatic life things. </p>
<p>Finances are big thing that kids just don’t get and I believe parents do not train their kids enough. Banks know this; they are set up waiting for the kids at freshman orientation. Kids should get a checking account and learn to budget in high school and get into the pattern of balancing their checkbooks and being aware of how much money they have. Some things they can get with a quick crash course in life (sometimes literally a crash, LOL) but other things are really things where they need help.</p>
<p>I remember being so embarrassed one year when one of my boys at my urging bought a used textbook for high school. He bought one falling apart with missing pages because that was all that was there. The teacher was mortified and upset when S said he was told to get one used by his mom. Now he knows, that he should look for good condition used textbooks first and get one of them IF there is one in GOOD CONDITION, otherwise go new. Thought it was obvious; it was not.</p>
<p>Got one from my college soph son today, via IM
-Send me an absentee ballot
-You can print one from this website (County Clerk site)
-But I don’t have a letter
-?
-An envelope
-Buy a stamped one from the Post Office.</p>
<p>School has been in session a week, now. Just received the following e-mail from S, who has a month-old laptop. Being a forward-thinking mom, I sent him an excel spreadsheet with family phone numbers, addresses, birthdates (well…one can always HOPE!) </p>
<p>Hi mom. My computer doesn’t have excel so I can’t look at the attachment.</p>
<p>My freshman S started classes last week on the west coast. Today I trumped him (for the one and only time, I am sure) on a technology issue.</p>
<p>I wanted to know the serial number of his laptop, in case it gets stolen or lost and he has to report that loss. So I asked him to send it to me.</p>
<p>“Where is the serial number on the computer?” was his question. I went to a mac website, found the answer, and emailed it to him. This old mom is feeling pretty cocky right about now!</p>
<p>I got a frantic call about 1 a.m. (we’re late nighters) asking how to do footnotes in Word. I rarely use Word (stick to WordPerfect if I can) but H does and he told him how to do it. Of course, S has Vista and we’re XP so the versions were not the same. Took us a few minutes to find it with phone descriptions. </p>
<p>I managed to restrain myself from asking why he had waited until midnight the night before a paper was due to begin! He was stressed enough already. At least, it was just a draft.</p>
<p>This was, of course, the follow up call to the question “How do I write a paper?” Granted our h.s. did not do a stellar job in teaching the kids to write, but S is very articulate and understands the principles. That was fine, until he read me the prompt, which was basically “write about whatever you want related to this work.” His first question was actually if I had read the work, which I had. In fact, I went and found it and saw the date I had purchased it – 1972, so needless to say, I was not conversant with the main points. I gave him some suggestions and asked some questions, and we worked out a topic. </p>
<p>As I told older S when doing a couple of all nights on papers with him (he lived at home), “I have a Ph.D. I’ve done this before. It’s your turn.”</p>
<p>D is 16, and recently got her drivers’ license. She came home from a rainy high school football game complaining bitterly that her car fogs up so badly she couldn’t see. She said she rolled down the windows, but then it was raining on her, so she rolled them back up. We asked her if she used the de-fogger. She said that she pushed the button but it didn’t help. We then explained that the “button” was for the back window. She needed to turn the knob on the heater to the de-fog setting and turn the fan up. Does she know where the defog setting is? Ummmm… no. Somehow we never covered this in all those hours of driving time. I blame myself, kid could have crashed because she couldn’t see, because I didn’t explain how to use the de-fogger.</p>
<p>My daughter called me up last week to tell me that she has misplaced (lost) her ATM/credit card. I told her that I would call the bank and have a new card sent to the bank’s branch close to her school. Since she goes to a school at at small town in upstate NY, I just assumed the bank would only have one branch up there. When I called the bank I was surprised there were 3-4 branches up there. I called my daughter to find out which branch would be most convenient for her to get to. At this point I have a bank rep on one line and my daughter on another line, my daughter said, “tell them to send it to the bank that’s across the street from ____(local grocery store).”</p>
<p>:) I realize this is a parent thread but I thought I’d jump in on the snail mail thing. </p>
<p>I’m almost 18… I’ve mailed stuff from our mailbox before (you put the flag up!) but the first time I tried to operate one of those hulking blue postal boxes six months ago, it took me twenty minutes to figure out where the letter slot was (what? it’s hidden!)</p>
<p>My mom was sitting in our idling car, laughing until the tears rolled down her face as I stood on a public street and walked around and around that stupid thing. Someone finally had mercy on me.</p>
<p>that would have been me when I was 27 and moved to Houston. Got in the car and the windows fogged up. Turned the de-fog up. Windows got worse. Turned it up higher. Total fog. Rolled down driver’s window and got the last block home with my head out the window. Got out of the car and realized all the windows were fogged up on the outside! Who knew? ultrahigh humidity was never a problem in Colorado.</p>
<p>The first time I drove in Denver, I thought the headlights were broken or battery was dying. Scary to drive in the dark with very little light, and I had to apologize to my boyfriend for breaking his car. I didn’t realize that you need to clean the mud off the headlights when driving in slush…</p>