Afraid you’ll forget important details before your kid starts college? Check out this summer checklist of must-do appointments, tasks, and backups that will give you peace of mind as your student launches.
“Mom, when was my last prostate exam?” I had to chuckle when I overheard the baby-faced young man sitting next to me in the doctor’s waiting room. His mother’s look of strained patience told me all I needed to know. She was making him complete the health questionnaire on his own for the first time.
There are many things our young adults will never know: the thrill of finding a decent prize in a Cracker Jack box, the names of The Spice Girls, and how to find information without Siri’s help.
Make sure your kid knows how to access vital information and has checked important appointments off the list before they leave for college, whether this is their first or fourth year on their own. Take time to go over the really important details about healthcare, finances, and travel, to name a few important categories.
Once they’re off to college it will be next to impossible to track this information down or cross important appointments off your summer checklist. An annual check up, for example, is often necessary for prescription refills your young adult may need to take with them.
…first year-college students have a lot in common with foreign students, in that they are both entering a brand new world. What many don’t realize is that learning to navigate one’s personal world is critical to optimizing one’s experience in the academic world.
Marjorie Hansen Shaevitz
Shopping for dorm décor and packing for their first apartment are important, but forgotten bath towels, laundry soap, and family-sized bags of Kit Kats can all be purchased online and delivered to their door. Does your student have a plan for the really crucial problems?
Things like:
- Stolen Valuables
- Forgotten Passwords
- Checking Account Access
This End of Summer Checklist will help you keep track of important details that can’t be taken care of at the last minute and are too essential to forget.
Trust me, move in day will come all too soon. You’ll want to focus on finding a parking spot, checking out the roommate, and making sure you have enough Kleenex. Save yourself from panicking over whether your child’s vaccinations are up to date.
I still remember it like yesterday; the ordeal of wrangling my daughter’s worldly goods into her dorm elevator on what surely must have been the hottest day of the year. Emotions, advice, and sweat poured from every person in that tiny room. The exception was my son, who took a nap on his sister’s new bed.
The day you have anticipated, dreamed about and maybe even dreaded for 18 years has arrived. While college move-in day is a proud moment for any parent, that does not mean it isn’t a day filled with stress and more than a little sadness.
Grown and Flown
Once our kids are back at school, we’ll have enough anxiety wondering what they are doing, who they are with and whether they are wearing clean underwear. Take a little time in advance to review this end of summer checklist and bring yourself some much-needed peace of mind.
Every once in awhile I think about that sweet guy in the medical waiting room sitting next to his brave mom. I really should have given her a hug, or at least a knowing glance.
Because the truth is, parents don’t get enough credit for all the unseen activities, appointments and forms we take care of regularly. But, little by little, those mundane acts add up to create a full-fledged adult. A grown person who will someday answer their kid’s prostate question.
