Another one of those who came over from the other board, I guess around 2002/3 (I overlapped between the two). D (HS 2000!) was in the middle of transferring schools, and I decided we needed to do a better job getting S (HS 2004) into the right college to start with. So, my kids were about 19 and 16 then, 36/33 now. S works for a nonprofit; D is taking time off from nonprofit work with new baby.
I was working in higher ed as a support counselor and adjunct, now I teach full time and am also am a sometimes published writer. Not shy to say that I’m 60 now…don’t mostly feel so much older except when I get up in the morning.
Nice to see so many of us have hung around for so long!
My D was a sophomore is high school and had just taken the PSAT’s. The year was 2002. I came on here to see how her scores stacked up. She and I learned a lot from Xiggi. She’s now 31 and is home on maternity leave from Google. Four months ago she and her husband had a beautiful baby girl. My other two children who are both sons are 28 and 23. They graduated from college and are out in the working world. They all did well in the college admission process which I attribute to CC.
@anxiousmom, Thanks for starting this.
I learned about Rice U. mostly from anxiousmom’s posts (and the posts from another college student who used to be a female Civil Engineering major and later married with a music major from Rice also. Anyone remember her screen name?) Much later, I accidentally found that she actually lived in the same city as I do when she mentioned the new car race track in our city when she planned for her D’s wedding.
I also miss Curmudgeon (esppecially his long road trip report.) Another very memorable report is the ‘unplanned’/spontaneous trip of MomOfWildChild’s son.)
When I first joined…we were starting the undergrad search for Dd. She wanted to go to college in CA…so I posted a query her. Carolyn…remember her…answers my query very quickly with a number of great choices…Santa Clara was one. The bonus for us was that DD wanted to continue playing her musical instrument and the private teacher at SCU was also a CC member at the time. And two other CC regulars lived in the SCU area. Really…lots of good support!
Apparently I officially joined in July 2009, but I know I was reading the forums at least six months before then.
Older daughter was a junior in HS, younger daughter was in eighth grade.
I learned about CC through older daughter who was looking for every possible advantage to be accepted by an Ivy. But, on these forums I learned that Pitt gave full tuition scholarships, which led to us telling daughter she could use Pitt as her safety instead of Penn State. She ended up going to Pitt on a full tuition scholarship. (Crying, I might add.) but within a day she realized it was the right place and she had a phenomenal experience there.
Today both hubby and I are retired. Older daughter has a Master’s in wind energy from Denmark Technology University And is working for a wind energy company in Copenhagen. She’s planning her wedding to a fellow student of DTU in Barcelona (his home) next June.
Younger daughter also went to Pitt, did her Master’s in Mechanical Engineering at Berkeley, and is working for an engineering company in the Bay Area.
I still love the parent cafe. I can’t imagine what would change that would deter me from coming here regularly.
Seconding what fun it is to see all these long-term (NEVER OLD) CC friends/voices.
I joined just about thirteen years ago, in March of 2006. D was already done with the process, S1 was just beginning, and S2 was not quite four. Which is pretty hard to believe. Then again, I was a lot younger too - a springy 45.
Written down, most of my life looks the same - still doing the same work, still happily married to the same guy, still in the same area (though we did move a few miles south five years ago, and oh yeah, there was that house fire. . . ). D and S1 each lived at a distance for a few years after college; both are back in our general area now.
We have a little more spare income, a little more time to indulge in some new or renewed pursuits (hiking, birdwatching), three different cats (RIP to the two who were with us way back then), and of course hundreds more new books. You’d think we’d be a lot calmer about the college process, and to some extent we are, but S2 is, of course, different from his sibs.
Officially joined 7/2005, when S was a JR in HS. He and D have long since graduated and are living their independent lives. One day I’d hope to be able to post in the MOB/MOG or grandparents thread, but who knows when that will be? I was working part-time to full-time when the kids were younger and we needed my income. Now, H has fully retired and I’m do a lot of intensive volunteering with nonprofits for which I am paid honoraria. We travel more and have no more education bills for anyone. Life is good, but we would love if either or both kids opt to get a graduate or professional degree–we shall see. Have referred many folks to this website as I think it is a great place, especially parent café!
I joined in early 2011, just a few months before my D graduated HS. I am not sure exactly why I joined as her college search was just about done at that point. She ended up as a Spanish major at Tulane.
I knew this forum would not be much help for my special needs son (HS 16, some special ed IEP student), and I was right on that. And, it would have been a lot more help with my daughter if I had known about you all in 2007.
I was glad to be a part of D’s high school class of 2011 group here as that group made their way through college.
I stopped coming here for a year or so when my son was a senior and his first year of college. I stopped in to read a bit on the baseball thread as the Cubs were working on their World Series run, otherwise I stayed away.
I came back to be a part of the cafe as my D worked her way through medical school. She is now finishing her 3rd year and just took her step 1 yesterday. She did her applications in my year away. You all were helpful during her wedding fiasco.
H, S, and I made a major move from Iowa to California a year ago. D is still in Iowa for med school at what is her instate school and plans to graduate in May of 2020. Her H is working on an MPH and will graduate the same time. S is not currently in school, he is a semester away from an AA degree and may or may not ever finish. @-)
I joined in January 2007 when D1 was a senior and I was trying to navigate the Fin Aid process (FAFSA). My youngest at that time was 10. Youngest will start grad college this spring and start grad school in the fall. D1 and S graduated and secured jobs soon after graduation. I was working part time in 2010 - like 30 hours a week and now have been full time since 2009 (?). H retired in late 2017. Still not out of the fin aid process since we are helping D2 with her grad school fin aid. Hate that process just as much now as I did then!
CC not only helped me grow in the area of navigating the college process but helped in helping me form a plan for my own routine years before the kids left home. Life changing was lurking and then joining the D/E/W thread which gave the confidence to start on a path of fitness. I started running at age 53, changed my eating habits and became the person I think I longed to be for so, so long - that person who values fitness and wellness and lives it daily. Priceless support on that thread. 6 years later, still on that same path with some new twists and still plenty of motivation.
I agree with the idea that it is hard to explain to others not only how this community works, but how it breathed so much knowledge and life into my role as a mom and just me!!!
I’ve been here since August 2006, when S1 was about to start his junior year of HS. A parent friend and one of his former teachers had both suggested we look at Harvey Mudd, so I went on Google…and found y’all. Have met close to 20 CCers IRL, and chat with a couple groups regularly. I’m so lucky to have found you all!
Was home due to health reasons at the time, have been in and out of the workforce since, and now am unofficially, reluctantly retired – work and my health just do not mix. Have been dealing with a cascade of medical issues for the past couple years and I never get back to “before.” Had a huge scare in November which rattled the h*** out of me. I do a lot of charity quilting, but have realized that I should probably start making some family heirlooms, too. Happily, I have several nieces and a nephew who are married and they are anxious for baby quilts when the time is right.
OTOH, S1 is now 28, graduated from college, is a software engineer in CA (has been at his job 6+ years now), was married and divorced, but now seems to be in a very good place and has loving friends. S2 is 27 and also graduated, though with a few significant bumps along the way. Came home, worked some odd jobs and saved money. Is now in a former Soviet country teaching, working on his language skills, doing some freelance writing and editing, and working with veterans. He has talked about doing this since his Bar Mitzvah. He’s been there for a year, loves it, gets to travel and the cost of living is low enough that he is self-supporting. He’s talking about grad school, but I’m not sure in what area it will be. He’s had his horizons opened considerably!
DH is still working 70 hours/week, has no plans to retire. We are doing our bucket list traveling now while I still can.
We’re still in the same older house, looking at all the renovations needed and gasping at the expense. I do follow the Bag A Week thread and am making good progress at getting the junk out of here. The Parents Caring for Parents thread convinced me I should not leave this task to my sons or future DILs.
I joined days after my son applied to colleges, in his junior year. 2004? Or 2005? On the Wednesday before winter break, he was told he had overdone the DE option (dual enrollment). His GC suggested he apply to state flagship. We stayed up until 2:00 am downloading LORs and calling several,colleges to consider if he would be a freshman or transfer. His fav teacher couldn’t write her LOR overnite, but others did, and his GC got his applications out within a day. She also arranged a few interviews, but everything was late and rushed.
More personally, I got engaged to a HS b/f and moved to CA to be with him. It turned into a disaster. Feeling alone , I would read CC and delight in the daily news from my online “friends”. I Moved back to my FL house, which, coincidentally, couldn’t have been sold because it needed so many repairs after a hurricane. I rebuilt my practice and good friends remain good.
So now I have true grandparent envy. I have totally embraced decluttering but I am reluctant to give up my house (way to large) for an apartment. I’ll be working into my 70’s.
Fall of 2005 when H discovered site to look at MIT postings when son was a 16 year old HS senior and lived in Wisconsin. H dropped the site years ago, son went elsewhere and I continued my guilty pleasure, especially on the UW site. Moved to Florida several years ago, kid finished college, has been working several years… I ought to quit but… fun to see how others live et al. I don’t feel too bad when the café has threads on Medicare- there are others out there in my age group.
I joined prior to Aug 2004, when CC changed the format. but can’t quite remember exactly when. I well remember reading Carolyn’s sage advise, and still remember Curmudgeons hysterically funny posts. His DD and my DS both graduated HS in 2006. Thanks to the wise advise of some long gone old timers here in CC, DS was lucky enough to earn a full tuition scholarship to a great U, which was a huge relief after paying for private school for 13 yrs.
DS graduated with a PhD last year, and is now a post Doc and is currently applying for academic positions. He is, as we speak, in his old room preparing for an interview here in MP tomorrow. Keeping fingers crossed that he can once again live close to home in the near future. But , on a sad note, that would mean breaking up with his newly acquired GF, as she is highly unlikely to want to move from her native home in Mich.
I’ve stayed active on CC, trying to pay it forward with newbie parents in return for the invaluable help I once received. And fellow retires and soon to be retires on the cafe have been valuable in navigating Medicare and retirement planning.
sooooo glad there was, and still is, a CC !
@westparent123 - you are thinking if aibarr - who is a successful structural engineer in Houston. The OP of this thread, anxiousmom, momofwildchild, patsmom and I all had kids at Rice at the same time. I think my S looked at buying a piece of furniture from @anxiousmom’s DD’s room (they were in the same residential college.)
@jym626, Yes, I thought of aibarr but could not remember that name at that moment. The mentioning of aibarr reminds me of MaineLongHorn as well - both have been in the “structural” engineering field.
I happen to bump into this site (mostly as a lurker) when our child was in his last year of high school. Now he is fully grown up and lives his life independent of us, in another part of the country. The time flies!
Re: “navigating Medicare and retirement planning“:
These two topics may be of special interest to us this in the coming months/years… One of us will be Medicare-eligible toward the end of this year and the other about a year later.
Great thread for we old-timers – I also came to CC when it was first launched, on the older platform (2002?) – also a refugee from that other unmoderated college forum (where I had a different screen-name). My son was already in college, my daughter was just starting high school.
I personally in the same place, physically: same house, same career.
Different pets. (my 16+ years on CC is bumping up close two full dog-generations)
For my family: My family has expanded to include a son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and ex-daughter-in-law. I now have a 9-year-old grandson. Kids have acquired bachelor’s & master’s degrees and have held more jobs than I can count.
Lots & lots of time spent traveling and/or living abroad on multiple continents for my daughter, and I’ve had a few overseas trips of my own. Nowadays a lot of my travel time is geared to connecting up with my kids, with one family unit on the east coast, the other pacific northwest.
A large part of the reason I spend so much time on CC is that I live alone & also work from home-- so lots of hours at the computer and lots of time on my hands. It’s just too easy & too much of a temptation to open up the extra browser window to check in on CC throughout the day.
