That’s a Wrap on the 2023-2024 School Year!
And just like that, the school year is over. Our daughters finished their sophomore years at colleges almost 800 miles apart. We’ve packed one up and moved her out the sorority house for summer, and she’s already at her job as sleep-away camp counselor for the first half of summer. Her sister is keeping her apartment through the summer, so we won’t do the pack-up again until July, but she’s already been at home a few weeks working a summer job.
Some days it felt like the wait between January and May was taking forever. In other ways, it felt like it was flying by, and Christmas was just yesterday. What I do know is that the summer, and the limited time we have with our girls at this age, will soar past us faster than we’re ready for.
Whatever phase your student is in – a young adult graduating from college, a kid about to head to college for the first time in three months, or somewhere in between, they all present different challenges for loved ones and parents who have been supporting them for the last 18 to 22+ years.
We’re halfway through the undergrad years, and what we’ve learned is this: Kids grow up fast at college. They become more independent (at least, ours have) and often want to spend more time with their friends, jobs, and activities than they want to spend with family. It’s a big adjustment. We’ve raised them all these years to be strong and independent, and ours are adjusting well to their new responsibilities in life. It’s bittersweet to loosen the reins and release control when we’ve been doing things our way for so long.
We’ve also learned that kids can do a bit of a backslide when they’re back home for summer. My daughter in the apartment has been cooking her own dinners for the last eight months in her own kitchen. But now that she’s home, she wants Mom to make her meals. The daughter in the dorm house has been doing her own laundry and managing her own prescription medications for those same eight months, but now that she’s back home, she looks to Mom for help in those areas. There are two schools of thought here – the parents who treat their adults like adults, and those who let the kids come back out during summer.
I’m the second kind of parent. I know they can cook meals and do their own laundry, but when they’re at home, I want to take care of them. I may take some flak for that, but it’s just who I am. I want them to spend their summers resting, recharging, and having fun during their spare time. For mine, it’s probably the last year they can do that, as next summer after junior year will likely be filled with internships, or last-minute coursework.
Me being that second mom, I gave my girls a Summer Fun box to kick off the summer with some nostalgic and fun summertime items. I wanted to help get them out of school mode and into summer mode. https://www.collegecarepackageco.com/shop/p/summer-fun. It’s helping all three of us soak in some of their last months of freedom and kid stuff.
Whether you’re the first or second type of parent, just try to live in the moment and enjoy whatever time you get to spend with your kids. Because, as we all know, that time is slipping away from us quickly as they establish the “adult” lives we’ve been encouraging them to embrace for years.