One Less to Worry About?

So we dropped the kid off at college and things went pretty well. The university had bragged about what an awesome job they do on freshmen move-in day and it was pretty true. During the summer orientation day, they did a cute description of the two types of parental reactions as they see their kid leave the nest. One type slowly, tearfully says, “He’s gone”, while the other, full of excitement and joy, says, “He’s gone!!” It was kind of funny but I’m not exactly sure which camp we fell into…OK, my wife was definitely in the first camp, but I think I was a bit more into the second.

The kid has so much potential and I don’t think we’ve challenged him like he needs to be. Thankfully, he’s been involved in schools with pretty high expectations and his university has the reputation for being top-notch. He seems to be making the necessary adjustments, but its funny how much more difficult his life is without Mom and Dad to take care of everything. It’s also funny how much easier life is when he’s not around to have to worry about.

Yesterday I saw one of our graduates in the parking lot picking up her sister. I asked her how it was going, staying home and attending the local community college. Since this is homecoming week, I asked her if she’d be attending the football game on Friday. She said she would if she weren’t grounded. Then she thought about it and said, “I didn’t think it was legal to be grounded when you are eighteen years old.” I kind of laughed and said “Well, when you’re living under their roof and they’re paying the bills, they can do pretty much anything they want.” I thought, that’s kind of a bummer, still having to actively parent your eighteen year old college student.

That night on the way home, my daughter was expressing her anticipation of going away to college. “Man, there is no way I’m staying around here for college. I can’t wait to leave home, nothing against you and Mom”, she said. My first thought was, yeah, one less to worry about. But then with her, I’m not sure that will be the case. I have a sneaking suspicion that the worry factor will be different for a daughter. I guess that one remains to be seen.