<p>3:30 and he still hasn't turned up.
Jym626- They would have been bummed without your snacks!
I should remind son about his cleats. But don't know if I will!
We have family plans for this evening that I have a feeling are going to be derailed somewhat due to the lack of packing getting done.
Dear husband will not be happy since he is the pack the car the night before kind of guy and his idea of packing the car is not doing it at midnight.
Little sister is now reconsidering going for the ride. I am keeping my fingers crossed she goes. I am looking forward to having a few days home alone.</p>
<p>
[quote]
We might need a new thread about returning home to clean up after the packing!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Wait until you really, really start missing him. Maybe the day of the first high school football game he isn't at.... then go clean up his room. I did this and got mad enough that it's a good thing she was 1200 miles away. Yogurt container under the bed? 12 coffee mugs? Thank you letters from grad presents that never got mailed? Piles of dirty towels in the closet? Mounds of high school papers and college related mail sliding off the desk? Where did I go wrong with this child?</p>
<p>I'm posting to vent that D leaves Sunday and rather than packing has spent the last couple of days updating her itunes from sibs CDs. Does this seem normal?</p>
<p>Oh yeah. She's gotta have her music. To some, it's more important than clothes.</p>
<p>My S has not made much progress on the packing front, but he does have his iTunes updated. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>He is now home! Came in around 3:45. He seems to be under the impression he will have time to go out with friends later tonight.
He is going off to school with no new shoes. His newest pair is over a year old. He never could find time to go to the store.
I am still fuming so am sitting upstairs in my room and not helping.
Last year I didn't do much cleaning after he left. This year I am planning on doing a deep clean. I am getting sick of looking at all the mess. He doesn't get rid of anything.
Dragonmom- when my 14 yr old went away with a friend for a week I did some cleaning in her room and bath. I found glasses, at least 5 spoons, empty and half full bottles of vitamin water under the bed. Half bags of chips. Paint brushes stuck to paper. Cut up bits of photos and pages from magazines(she makes collages). Socks, shorts, towels. Yuck.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Thank you letters from grad presents that never got mailed? Piles of dirty towels in the closet? Mounds of high school papers and college related mail sliding off the desk?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Funny you should mention that, dragonmom. I went into his room this morning, and it did relieve my empty nest sadness. Gross, just gross--but I knew it would be. I decided to tackle about one square foot at a time. </p>
<p>I have the thank-you notes in my purse. He finished them en route to school, but forgot to bring enough envelopes. He organized his music, too, and his photos. He cleaned out his clothes and books. He also threw away all his college application materials. So why does the room still look like a tornado hit it? To his roommate, who seems like such a nice guy: Good luck to you!</p>
<p>mom60: He can buy shoes when he gets there. That's what we did on Tuesday!</p>
<p>jym626, glad you made it to the Big Easy without bringing Fay along for the ride. My best friend from this neck of the woods flew down with her sophomore son today. Her older son is Tulane class of '07. It's a pretty "hot" school around here. Speaking of pretty hot, some nice weather N.O. is having. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>
[quote]
He is going off to school with no new shoes. His newest pair is over a year old. He never could find time to go to the store.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This was the one thing my mom INSISTED on...she made me replace my 3-year-old Adidas with a new pair of the same. :)</p>
<p>Left my house at 6:45 this morning, made it to Rohnert Park at 3:30 this afternoon with only about a half hour of traffic...not in Los Angeles, but in Oakland! 8-O</p>
<p>Somehow, I ended up with no hairbrush, no lightbulb for my desk lamp, and no ethernet cable (everywhere on campus has wireless internet except for the domrs). Though, to quote my dad, if that's the worst thing I forgot I'm in pretty good shape. :)</p>
<p>It is so good to hear I am not alone in my gripes about kid and the moving process. We love them, but their logic... Each year it has taken son longer to get going with the packing bit, I mentioned to him last week about how people were asking if he was excited to be going back to school (and new apt experience). His response was that he was excited about being there but did not like the long car ride (nor packing). When I think about it, way back in kindergarten the other gifted kid quickly did the silly 1-10 objects glued on paper project the day I was volunteering whereas son procrastinated as much as possible... sigh, at least this was the probably last move from home for him (moves from dorm to home have been equally pushed by parent wanting to return home).</p>
<p>Drove son back to school yesterday. Targeted departure time was 11:00 AM; we finally made it at 11:30. Not bad. Of course, he didn't start to pack the car until around 10:00 AM. </p>
<p>Halfway through our three and a half hour drive, I asked if he had remembered to bring towels. Obscenity followed. Then he suddenly remembered he had also forgotten his pillow. And his duvet cover. And his mattress pad. </p>
<p>Oh well. Dad and I will be going back up in a few days, I guess.</p>
<p>VeryHappy -- Towels and pillow?? Oh, well -- at least it wasn't anything too important (LOL)!!</p>
<p>towels and pillow was the one reminder I made yesterday. Of course all the towels in the kids end of the house were dirty.
He finished packing the car at 11:45 pm last night.
He got up this morning and they made it out the door at the targeted 8:30 am. I know he went out last night after packing so I think he is planning on sleeping most of the way up.
He never did get a new pair of shoes. His problem not mine.
For some strange reason he did remember to wash and clean out his car yesterday. (I had made that request last week)
I told my husband that to just do me a favor and help my son unpack. My husband is as bad as my son. His idea of dropping son off will be to bring it all up to the room and dump it. Only setting up computer and printer. The mother in me wants to at least know that he started the year with mattress pad, sheets and comforter on the bed.
I haven't looked at the tornado of his room and bath yet.</p>
<p>After another half hour, I promise, I'll go upstairs and start folding shirts and emptying garbage. It's scaaaaaaaary up there.</p>
<p>Very Scaaary!</p>
<p>My son actually got done packing by noon the day before he left. As he said, "This is weird, Mom. This just doesn't happen." I'll have to mail some stuff to him, but I think it might all fit into one box, two at the most. He checked one big suitcase and had a carry-on bag and backpack.</p>
<p>My husband just called. Son is all moved in. The only thing they are missing is the computer lock. Which I knew since I found it under a pile of junk in his room. He also could have used more hangers. Son is sending a bag of clothes home with my husband. He could not fit them all and decided he did not need them all.
My son is already off with friends. Dear Dad has decided that he doesn't want to sit around a motel room so is headed home. 5 1/2 hour drive.
My husband was surprised at the amount of friends my son has at school. Everyone so happy to see each other.</p>
<p>Son actually started packing about 36 hours before departure. I had nothing to do with it.<br>
Everything in one bag--which weighed exactly 50lbs. (Lucky!)
He made his own shuttle reservations with his own credit card (new). (I'm the type of mom who tries "help" too much, so I realized I have to stop doing things like this for him).
H drove him to the airport early this morning while I was still sound asleep.
S's room was completely cleaned up when I looked in there this morning, and by afternoon one of his younger brothers had moved in.
Wow! Most painless departure yet! </p>
<p>He called me when he arrived. He forgot his toothbrush--which he can buy there, and a few favorite T-shirts--which he can easily do without. Much improved over last year.</p>
<p>And wonder of wonders, he confessed to me a few days ago that he's lost
interest in computer games. "They've just gotten boring. . .they don't appeal to me like they used to." (He's 20 and a junior, so I've been waiting for this for a long time).</p>
<p>BTW, I asked him how often he does laundry at school and he said "AT LEAST once a week. Otherwise I'd run out of clothes." Whew!</p>
<p>Wow. You did something right, Atomom.</p>
<p>OK, re: my post # 226.</p>
<p>Helped S move into the dorm yesterday. He had packed everything himself and fit it all into the car. My sole contribution was to give him a roll of paper towels to bring.</p>
<p>Well, we were in the dorm room and being a mom I started to make his bed. I found the sheets, but had to ask him, "Where's the mattress pad?" He said, "Ummmm.... folded up under my bed at home. Shoot, I knew I forgot something."</p>
<p>So I'll stop bragging now.... ha ha.</p>
<p>DD started packing in earnest (actually putting piles into suitcases and boxes) around 8:00 last night. She was on an 8:00am flight this morning with 200 pounds of stuff and made it to her cross country destination and moved into her new dorm room. As luck would have it, she drew a cab driver with a bad back (and a brace to prove it!), but was lucky enough to be helped by the dad, mom and brother of a fellow student who was waiting to check in at a neighboring dorm. The guys each carried a 50# box up one flight of stairs for her and she managed the rest herself. My eternal gratitude to the family who so graciously helped her.</p>