college parent

Finals care package ideas

 in College Parent Tips  tagged college parent / holiday gift ideas by

College finals care package ideas from top left: chocolate truffles / squishie / stretchy stress balls / boba squishie / gold chocolate box / yellow squishie /

It’s finals season! If you have a college student away at school, they might be gearing up for finals right now. Finals is a stressful time for a college student as they have multiple finals exams in the same week, as well as final projects and papers due all at the same time. This is a time when your college student will feel stressed, possibly homesick, and really need a mommy or daddy hug. Unfortunately, you are not there, so you cannot give them that hug which makes everything less overwhelming. Instead, you can send them a little love from home, in the form of a finals care package.

There are three key ingredients to the perfect care package from home. Something sweet, something squishie to hug, and something to help the stress. Something sweet is easy. You can run out to CVS and grab their favorite candy bar, or you can get something special which isn’t sold on campus or near campus. We love to send our daughter See’s candy, or Godiva chocolate. The boxes are special, and the chocolate is sooooo good. This gives your college student something sweet, which is special. They love that!

This generation loves squishies and stuffies. It seems as if the majority of college students have a squishie collection in their dorm room. Why not give one more? They come in different sizes, but the 12″ is the easiest to hug and snuggle while under stress. A new squishie just before finals week will give your student a feeling of love from home, as well as something to hug while under stress. Love that!

Finally, the care package for finals should have something to combat stress. Stress balls don’t last forever, so if your student brought one to school back in August, there is a chance it is either already destroyed, or on its last legs. Why not send a new stress ball which can take the heat of finals week? This package of stress balls offers not only the ability to squeeze, but also stretch. What a fun stress reliever! Love it!

When I send a care package to my daughter, I like to line the box with a pretty foil in a fun color such as fuchsia. This makes the entire box festive. Your student will open the box, see special foil, and love the sweets, squishie, and stress balls inside. It is the perfect finals care package to help relieve stress and send a little love from home.

Shop finals care package gifts online:

You can ship your finals care package to your student via your favorite shipping company such as UPS or USPS. If sending chocolate, make sure the shipper knows there is something perishable in there so that it doesn’t end up in a hot place. We have had good luck chocolate through UPS ground. It arrives at my daughter’s dorm in perfect condition.

Don’t forget to include a handwritten card with well wishes!

Good luck with finals, and thanks for stopping by!

XOXO
Cathy

Tips for surviving your child leaving for college

 in College Parent Tips  tagged college parent / lifestyle / tips by

One of the most anxiety ridden activities of high school is going through the application process. After your child is done receiving acceptances, waitlists, and rejections, then what? There is a short period of time when your child picks a school. Then, your whole family is excited, and you buy the sweatshirt for their new school. Then, you snap photos of your child wearing the sweatshirt and announce the big news all over social media. Your child tells all of his/her friends and then everyone is excited about the new school year in the fall.

One day over the summer, your child attends orientation at the new school and receives a schedule; then it hits you. Your little baby, who you used to carry around, feed, cloth, and snuggle with, is going to leave the house. This means no more good night hugs, no more good morning greetings, no more cooking a favorite meal and seeing the joy on your child’s face. It is over until Thanksgiving vacation. If your child leaves for school in August, it will be three full months before they come home for Thanksgiving.

You might get lucky, and your child attends a school with a Parent’s Weekend in early October. This is a weekend designated for parents to come on campus and visit their student. Chances are, your student will also have their own activities planned such as study groups for mid-terms and projects. You might get a little bit of time with your student, and some meals off campus, but it won’t be the full time attention you are accustomed to back home. Your student has their own life now.

This is hard. No-one tells you how hard it is. Everyone tells stories about how proud they are of their child, but no-one tells you how much you will miss your student. While nothing will replace hugging your child, there are a few things you can do to ease the pain, and to help you survive your student leaving for college.

  • Get a hobby. If you have a hobby, especially a new one, it will add something new to your life and also distract you from the missing person at the dinner table.
  • Concentrate on the other kids. Do you still have other kids at home? Don’t forget about them. Stay focused on their lives and enjoy parenting them while they are still home.
  • Don’t tell your child how much you miss them. If you tell your child how much you miss them and break into tears, they will feel guilty for going away. When you speak with your student, tell them how proud you are of them, and ask about their life.
  • Help them break-away and be excited about becoming an independent adult. Of course, no college student is fully independent. They will ask you for pizza money and call you for things such as how to remove a coffee stain from their favorite shirt.
  • Try to keep texting and calling at a minimum. If you need to reach out to your student, wait until the evening when they are back in their dorm room relaxing. You don’t want to bother them while they are studying and running from class to class.
  • Plan for their return. Look at the schedule for when your child returns for vacation. Plan some activities for those days and also schedule in down time for your student to sleep in and relax.

A child going away to college is a natural part of the parenting cycle. Your child is eighteen years old, and while he or she may not be ready to own a house and care for it, as well as themselves, your child will be ready to tackle things like laundry, getting to the cafeteria for food, keeping their room clean (well, we hope, haha), waking up in the morning, and paying attention to their studies.

Although your child went away to college, they still need you. They will still come home for vacation and breaks. While they aren’t in the house full-time anymore, your student will always be your child, and they will also love you. Embrace the growing up part, and help to guide them through the struggles.

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO
Cathy