<p>...you can make a weekend dinner reservation for you and DW without a second thought.</p>
<p>....when you can say "goodbye" to the minivan and "helloooo" to the coupe without a second thought.</p>
<p>Now it seems to me that dinners out requiring reservations and "coupes" require child to have landed quite a nice scholarship. Enjoy!</p>
<p>When you call him (at his school 150 miles away) knowing that he's out of class for the day and ask where he is and he says "at home".</p>
<p>Also when he's home to visit and says he has to leave early on Sunday to drive back "home" because he has some things to do "at his house" (off-campus apt.)</p>
<p>Mammall: LOL :D</p>
<p>I understand now why my mom said “don’t worry for us, sweetie, we are fine”. They must be partying the whole time!</p>
<p>I visited my East Coast-raised Stanford-grad son recently to help him get set up in his new apartment in San Francisco. While we were out shopping, a clerk asked him where he was from, and he answered, "I'm from California." When I heard that, I knew had really left home!</p>
<p>you make dinner and have way too many leftovers, for days, because the friends aren't here eating your food</p>
<p>you KNOW who made the mess in the kitchen or bathroom- poor kid left at home can't blame anyone else</p>
<p>and you are left to figure out how to ship that beautiful pleated, and I mean pleated dress cross country without squishing it all up (I am taking to the store i bought it at and beg for help) and then knowing that you won't see her all dress up for the Big Event</p>
<p>When you can cook anything you want for dinner and not have to listen to people complain. When you don't have to live on a regular diet of tacos, spaghetti, chicken parmesan, roast, and grilled meat with potatoes. When you can fix asparagus and mahi. When you can use stuff like capers in your recipes without someone saying, "eww, what are these little bee-bees doing in the food?"</p>
<p>When the batch of homemade cookies lasts for a week.</p>
<p>When her room is clean 2 days in a row.</p>
<p>When son and I were completing the rest of his paperwork for USNA and he designated me as the beneficiary of his life insurance policy provided to all midshipmen/active military.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>I sure do miss all my kittens!!</p>
<p>When you wander the grocery store with a basket dangling off your arm, skip right past all the fresh veggies and meats and head straight for the ready-to-eat food! ;)</p>
<p>When you can book one last minute business trip and one overseas weekend trip without a moment's hesitation.</p>
<p>When reflective moments open up in your mornings because you don't have to make lunches, shoo a boy to school or run someone to some game or another.</p>
<p>When you can disappear for weekends without worrying about 400 kids showing up at your house for an inadvertent 'text' party; ie "cheerson's parents are out of town woo hoo!"</p>
<p>When you notice that your personal anxiety and worry level has dialled down to 1.2--and that is for business matters only. No anxiety or worry on the homefront. Hey, that's different. </p>
<p>(I know CC parents have perfect halo-wearing children but I stood in the wrong line when they passed those out. I had two teenage boys; of the imperfect variety. I am bloody thrilled to be past all that teen-age monitoring).</p>
<p>Kat -
My son called me up from his new job asking for my SS #. He obviously wanted to keep the call brief and hung up before telling me why he needed it. I was very confused until my co-worker said it was probably to name me the beneficiary for life insurance provided by his employer - and she was right. It does make you feel old!</p>
<p>When I realized I could eat the Ben and Jerry's right from the container. (Hubby is lactose intolerant.)</p>
<p>When you return from an unscheduled trip to dscover that your kid had left a bunch of messages.</p>
<p>'Dad, it's me ...give me a call"
"Dad...call me back"
"Dad, where are you?"
"Dad, I am coming home if you don't call back tonight".</p>
<p>When your hand reaches toward the usual package of chocolate chips in the grocery store and you realize that the only ones home to eat the cookies certainly don't need the cookies!</p>
<p>When you can't find the car keys and realize it is because YOU lost them, not because S has them in his pocket (or, more likely, he's lost them!).</p>
<p>When kids home for summer break put beer in your frig and you can't say anything because they've been 21 for 9 months!</p>
<p>When during the work week the only one I have to make sure is out of the house on time is me... Going to bed and knowing I won't have to listen for the garage door to open to let me know S got home safely... only having to do luandry once a week now and finally having no set dinner plans. Of couse I miss him and we are very excited that he is coming home this weekend for the fall break so it will be interesting to see how I feel once we take him back to school</p>
<p>When you go to start her car which has been gathering dust in front of the house for a month and the battery is dead</p>