Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 385

College Admissions: Why My Mom Had It Way Easier in the 80’s

In just a few weeks my husband and I will send the second of our four children off to college. My daughter has spent the better part of the last two years making sure her resume includes a wide variety of activities, volunteer experience, and applicable courses. Together she and I have spent countless hours on everything from college visits to filling out scholarship forms to
shopping for dorm supplies.

It has been challenging, fun, and exhausting. As we near the end of our college preparatio...

It Was the Damn Baseball Pants That Got to Me

It was the damn baseball pants that did it.
I was putting the detergent away in the laundry room, reached up to opened the cabinet and your old baseball pants tumbled out.
I picked them up.

Stained knees, ripped pocket, worn out fabric on the backside, long outgrown.

Damn baseball pants.

I have tried all summer not to cry. I deliberately avoided all the articles online about the grief around dropping kids off at college. About how hard it is to watch your kids grow up. About saying goodbye t...

3 Easy Ways to Make a Guy’s Dorm Room Look Great

I’ve always been interested to see how guys approach the realm of dorm decor. In the boarding school I went to, most of the walls were covered with flags, movie and magazine posters. The focus of their rooms was much less upon personalizing the space with photos or artwork and more about creating a communal space with ample seating options. And yet, in college, some of the designs I admire most are guy dorm rooms.

Aside from the color scheme, I find that there isn’t much of a difference betw...

No “Right” Way to Feel When You Think About Your Kid Leaving Home

College send-off has been on the forefront of my mind lately. It’s been difficult to not think about it, what with emails arriving daily from stores touting all the latest dorm “must-haves,” the tearful TV commercials showing kids leaving home, and friends and family inquiring when college move-in day is.

So many friends are sending kids off to college in the next month or so – many of them for the first time. Their texts, questions, and worries have become almost frantic at times.  As to be...

New Best Friend: Heartfelt Thanks to a Person I Barely Know

To My Son’s College Best Friend

I don’t know much about you; I know you have dark hair and you played baseball in high school. I know that you live in Atlanta. I know that you are in the same fraternity as my son and that you share the same major. You were kind enough to friend me on Facebook, so I know that you have two younger sisters, and a mom who is usually the one behind the camera. Just like me.

When it was time to send Connor to college, we encouraged him to go out-of-state. College...

’Twas the Night Before Move-In Day

A poem for parents on the eve of college move-in day:

‘Twas the Night Before Move-In Day

’Twas the night before Move-In Day and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring, not even my spouse.

The totes were lined up by the back door with care,
in hopes that somehow they’d fit next to the spare.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
but not me—I sat there awake, my heart filled with dread.

Eyes filled with tears and a Kleenex in my grasp,
I thought about her birth, her lif...

Will What I Learned at Orientation Help Me with Drop-Off?

I just realized I have to learn how to say the word bathroom again. For nearly 22 years I’ve been saying potty.  “I have to go potty,” or “Do you have to go potty,” or the one every mom knows, “Yay, you went on the potty.”

I just spent the day at the parents portion of college orientation for my youngest child. My baby, my 18-year-old beautiful daughter. Tonight, she’s spending her first night in a dorm room, while my husband and I watch “Battle of The Network Stars” from 1977 on TV in the h...

46 Of the Best College Care Package Ideas

We recently asked our Grown and Flown Parents what was the ONE thing they sent their kids that they just loved and here are their favorite college care package ideas. 

Grown and Flown College Care Package Ideas

1. Homemade chocolate chip cookies

2. If you still have time host a going away party with your child’s close friends. Have them write on a post card a message to each kid attending. While they are at the party take pictures to attach to the postcard. Mail a card each week.

3. Uber Gift...

21 Things You’ll Love About The Empty Nest

This time of year there is absolutely no escaping the plethora of heart wrenching articles about sending your kids off to college, and while we realize that this is a stressful, and anxious time, we seasoned parents want you first-timers to know that there is much to enjoy in your empty nest.

Here are twenty-one things that experienced parents LOVE about an empty nest:

1. Go ahead and sleep with both eyes closed and without being awakened by noisy children or by the opening and closing of do...

What I Treasure About Teaching My Son to Drive

“As a general rule, you should keep your hands at 10 and 2,” I say. My son nods solemnly, adjusting his hands on the steering wheel, the vinyl gone shiny with use and age. “Make sure you can see out of the rearview and side mirrors. Always keep an eye on the temperature gauge – if it goes over halfway, pull over. If it goes into the red, you’ll be walking.” This is, I realize, the same advice I was given, years ago.

Our car is a little red island anchored on an empty sea of asphalt. To my lef...