19 June 2017: "It's hard...I tell her, 'You have to go. You are ready.'" --the mom of one of our incoming students, during the parent session of today's Advising and Registration activities.
I always tell parents in these sessions that I can't imagine what it's like to send your kids to college. You spend 17 or 18 years making sure that kid has what he or she needs and then you have to let go in a kind of major way. I mean, even the most hands-off parent must feel strange about it, whether their kid is super-excited to go or not. (Same goes for the parents' levels of excitement...or if they've had other kids go to college already. It must always feel significant.)
But if your child is shy or scared or has some special needs, it must be...a lot for you. So I always try to give voice to those emotions, admitting that I can't understand it completely, not having kids myself. But I do know what to do to help their kids succeed and I do my best to help them help me do it.
This group--Session C (the third of four)--is a small one for me: only three students, one in Communications, one in Spanish, and one in English. But they seem great: focused, smart, and friendly. Tomorrow (the day we build schedules) should go well.
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