DS/DD off to Uni? - Empty nest support thread

[rustybear]

DS is off to Warwick in October - anyone else feeling old? Or are there any old hands with advice ?

Well ours think it disciplined to only eat one little tiny chocolate a day

harbinger what is all the bubble wrap for?

at DD college the porters lodge was crammed with parcels - at least half from Amazon- some of the parents had taken care to write names in big black felt pen- could be easily identified from a distance by even the most absent minded DC. I was impressed. Twas that which inspired me.

this is the one ours had when little (similar)
www.housetohome.co.uk/product-idea/picture/christmas-advent-calendars-2011/3

Is that for three years suburbophobe? DD1 is just doing one year and then she's back in the uk for her final year.

Aaah well, if 3X females never eat choc! no point with calender.

Well.....Joke.....DD1 to DD2 ....jump on it.... I don't know.....

DD1 is not big on chocolate but she will make an exception for advent calendar chocs. DD2 inhales the stuff.

I find that being away from home means that christmas traditions suddenly seem much more important

DD has a Christmas Ball on Wednesday. She ordered a dress from ebay but had to have it delivered here. I've had to re-wrap it small enough to go through her letter box and post it on. Now you've all got me thinking about how to get an advent calendar to her.

Quite happily had Advent Calenders before they got commercialised and branded ,then I gave up. I'd rather buy them a bar of choc.

I can imagine that DD2's choice of dress would be small enough to fit through any letterbox There is a Christmas ball but I think the tickets are quite expensive so I'm not sure if she's going to go.

Yes Web It's tiny!

I'm a bit of a purist about Christmas ,but even I found these on line/digital Advent calendars appealing .
And no postage worries .
www.jacquielawson.com/gift-shop

Though maybe a bit young for a teenager ...

When DD2 was in halls they wpouldn't take large parcels she had to arrange to collect those from the post office, But they did take small parcels which wnt to the wardens room and she coolected from there, Halls was a big block of flats and each flat had 6 or 7 rooms,
I always send her a chocolate advent calendar I also send one to DD1 which she shares with her DH,

I have just posted a card sized advent calendar to DS (like these ) with a small box of chocolate reindeer from Hotel du Chocolat.

He is in his first year at Southampton and they have a normal sized letter box for each flat, and luckily parcels are delivered to the main reception where they can go and collect them.

I posted the dress this morning, she phoned this afternoon to say she would be home for the night tonight! So I shall pop down to Asda tomorrow to get an advent calendar for her to take back with her. Dilemma solved!

I'm getting weepy reading your post! I'm dreading my daughter leaving in October this year, and I'll have a son and a husband left at home, hadn't even consider your situation - how are you getting on?

Last term of the first year for DD. How are all your DC getting on?

Well it's the last term of DDs final year. She has already decided to stay up in Kingston with some of her friends. They can have the house they rent together for at least another year. So I now have another DD who has officially left home for good. Feels really strange that she won't be coming home. Also it only seems like yesterday that we were settling her in on her first day.

DD1 and DD2 both went off in Sept/Oct 2012.
DD2 came home at Christmas to call it off with her BF. We were all crying.
DD1 worked bonkers hours and slept!
Easter-Both home DD1 V few shifts. Good to chat to her again.
DD2 A problem.

GF BF ups and downs have (oddly) surprised me. My own memories are so vivid and didn't seem that long ago till now. I'm really not sure what advice to give as I don't think I was that great with romance/breakups (though not hopeless) so I have tried to be reassuring, sympathetic, supportive and motherly if consulted (which seems to happen: I never spoke to my parents about relationships so I am surprised) . I can't help feeling sad that young love doesn't always seem to run smoothly though.
On the whole I am really pleased with the way the DC are shaping up- becoming independent, making new friends, gaining confidence, developing relationships with the opposite sex, learning how to budget and organise, contributing to university life, getting academic work done etc.
I have been surprised and pleased by the way DC friends have accepted me. Yesterday when I phoned DD she was with some and I heard a spontaneous and cheery group ' Hello mum' from the other end! DS friends likewise are all very chatty and friendly and not at all standoffish or other generational.
We had a stream of friends staying over Easter: I had to remind one of them gently to clean the bath after he had finished and show him the cleaning stuff.

DS1, who appears on a very early part of this thread is now working abroad and not due to return permanently to the UK for over two years. He's managed to get one of the "must have" jobs in his field. Amazed that the boy who could scarcely get out of bed for lectures when a student is now doing so well.
DS2 is in 2nd year. Diagnosed with serious illness at end of last year but is coping very well. His university friends have supported him enormously both when he was in hospital and since he's been out. He might have had to drop out, come home and return to university next year but is soldiering on. We just hope that he can manage to get through his course (not bothered aboiutwhat sort of degree he ends up with or whether he has to retake) and that his illness can be kept under control.

Yes, I know it's an old thread, but I think it's been revived every year since I started it and I think it's still useful....

Wondered if this wld reappear , now I can post not just lurk!

Signing in. I wonder which is hardest, when your first dc leaves or when your last one does?

Signing in too.
*Gelatinous" I am not sure... I have done the first DC so just the last one to go!!

I'm a complete novice ggt. On the one hand my two interact (mostly positively) a lot, so I think it will be hard for dd as well as us in October, but when it's the last I imagine the house must seem extraordinarily quiet - the real end of an era.