It doesn't get any easier...

[Pileus]

Our son just left to go back to school ( USC ) as a junior. I thought it
would be alot easier than the last two times,but noooooooo. My wife shedding tears. I'm shedding tears. Even Yoda our cat knew something
was up. I followed him to BP while ago and filled up his tank, gave him a big hug all the while keeping my composure until I got back home then the tears came. I think the fact that he has matured so much really made
it harder to see him go this time. Have ya'll been thru this?
BEWARE THE OLE BALL COACH !

[vbhoutex]

Been there done that and it never got any easier!!!! How far is it to go for a visit? Is USC the University of South Carolina of the University of Southern California.? Anyway, it never changes. Both of ours are out of school and gainfully employed and we still miss them when they aren't here. Daughter lives away from home but our son is here for two more months till he gets married.

[Regit]

To answer vbhoutex... It's South Carolina... The Ole Ball Coach is Steve Spurrier.

[beachbum_al]

My children only being 7, 5, and 4 I have not had to deal with this yet. Sending them off to school and preschool was hard enough.

[Windsong]

My "baby" just left Sunday for college. My oldest son has been leaving me for 6 years now in pursuit of a Phd. in Chemistry, but nothing prepared me for when my youngest left too. Now I have the empty nest thing going on. I raised the boys alone for the last 12 years, and they have been the focus of my life.

This was the day I prayed for so long ago. It looked so impossible 12 years ago, alone and soley responsible for these two kids. When the day finally arrived, I felt relief and then I just felt lost and alone. Now I am just bewildered. I have to redefine myself and the next chapters in my life willl be about ME. (I'm still working on being excited about that...

Windsong

[Miss Mary]

Pileus - I just dropped my college Sophomore yesterday. Does it get easier? Yes and no. This year I feel so good about where she's at and I remember back to worrying about a lot of things last year - if she and her roommate would get along, if she'd find all her classes, get her books okay, were 10 meals a week enough (it is!), so many things, all rolled into one. Then the mess they leave behind while packing. Girls need so much stuff. It's quite different with boys, they don't even care if anything matches. They'll even take old sheets (although this year our daughter took 2 regular sized fitted twin sheets, since her mattress isn't extra long, she said just give me two old ones, that was easy!). I always look in her room after I drop her off. Looking for something important she left behind but also to just sigh. Then I close it. She's a Journalism major and took an out of town 8 week internship this past summer. So not only does she go to school 3.5 hours away, she's probably going to be out of town each summer now. From now on! It's difficult to find time for dental and doctor appts. She's hardly home!

But this is what we want for them - independency. And a nice future. So I keep telling myself all of these feelings are normal! Have I cried yet - no. It's usually something, like not having to share my car again or listening to her music in my car that does it. It will no doubt happen today. And making dinner for 3 isn't the same as 4 (although she's sometimes hurrying out the door, eating out with friends and forgot to tell me).

When they're little and glued to your side, you long for a nice break, just an adult moment - to watch a TV show you enjoy, finish one chapter in a book you've been trying to read, read the daily paper, actually finishing an article, or shop alone, quietly, heaven really or my cherished time was browsing in the library. You miss doing adult things and then poof - they're grown up and you can do all these things. That's usually when I miss that little hand in mine, small toys they've handed me, stuffed in my pocket, or sucker sticks shoved in my pocket too, evidence of a young child. Now my evidence is that tution bill and the mess in the bedroom next door (of which I won't look at today!).

Mary

[Pburgh]

Windsong, your story is the same as mine. As a single parent, when my last daughter left for college, I was on my own again.

Pileus, I remember those tears well. What a sense of pride in your child as they enter college and yet what a sad, empty feeling. You're a very strong person to keep that composure. Congratulations to you and your wife for a job well done. ((Hugs)) It really does get easier each year. The hard part is over.

My girls are both finished college, married and have children. I'm so very proud of them but they live hours from me and I miss them every day.

[Pileus]

Thanks for the words, all of you. We're much better today.

[pojo]

I'm sure it will be hard when my mom drops my brother off at college for his Junior year at UW-River Falls...

She was ok when I went to UW-Green Bay.... I lived at home and commuted 45 minutes to school.

I'm sure she'll be leary when I get my hurricane hunters gig (hopefully)... then it will be an empty nest.

[Persepone]

I wanted my daughter to be independent and self-sufficient when she grew up, so when she went off to college, I did know, deep down, that she would not be back except to visit.

On the other hand, while I said goodbye to the child, it was an opportunity to get to know the person--as an adult--that she had become. And she became a person who, if she were a total stranger, I would want to be friends with.

So in a strange way, I was not "sad." Nor am I sad. I am very happy that she grew up the way that she did...