Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 454

It’s Here: College Move In Day

It’s here. 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. While we have written aboutwhy we will miss our kids, how to manage dorm shopping and how to be successful in college according to research, older students and professors, here we are just going to look at the logistics of getting our kids out of ou...

Dear Parent Sending Your Firstborn Off To College

Dear Parent Sending Your Firstborn Off To College,

I recognize you.

I see you lying awake long after everyone else in your house is asleep because that’s when the panic grips you the tightest.

I hear the speeches you give yourself that contain phrases like, “it seems like just yesterday,” “how is this possible?” and “nope, never gonna happen.”

I see the secret calendar you are keeping that has all the possible dates throughout the year penciled in—in Sharpie—of when you’ll potentially get to...

When You are No Longer Mommy

My friends call me Lisa, my husband calls me Lis, my grandmother made me smile because she always called me Lizzy. But there is no name I have ever cherished, no name that held my heart like Mommy. My boys were born in England and I had to teach them to call me Mommy. They wanted to default to Mummy. I couldn’t be Mummy, I was simply far too American and Mummy always made me think of embalmed Egyptians.

So I taught them to speak and I taught them to call me Mommy and I hoped in some deluded l...

Student Discounts Where We Love (and Need) to Shop

Tuition, room and board may be the largest line items but they are far from the only costs of a higher education. College students need dorm provisions, books and updated technology, a heavy coat for cold climates, work clothes for internships, train, bus or airplane tickets home. Fortunately, numerous companies offer student discounts to help kids (and their parents) feel a tiny bit less pain whenever they swipe their credit cards. We compiled the following list but know there are countless...

State of Missing: My College Bound Daughter and Me

I am working at my desk and not far away my daughter is in the kitchen eating oatmeal for breakfast. Undoubtedly she is cruising social media on her phone when she calls out to me, “I miss Heathrow.”

This has been a refrain I have heard a lot this summer. Not the Heathrow part but many sentences prefaced with “I miss.” I miss beach week. Or I miss hiking in New Hampshire. I miss the school’s tuna salad. Or I miss my class on Chekov.

She’s repeated this phrase so often I have come to the concl...

Grown and Flown on NBC News

Almost as hard as choking back the tears when we drop our kids at college, is choking back the phrase, “Well, when I went to college.” It doesn’t take long before we realize that our experiences are hopelessly out of date and we have a much to learn as our kids do. Grown and Flown is thrilled that NBC News asked us to detail some of the changes we have seen in the off to college process. But, as our friend Lisa Lichtenberg so articulately points out, some of the most important things never ch...

Home Alone: Should You Trust Your Teen?

I did something this past weekend I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do, and I’m not talking about reading a map or doing a split.

I left my two oldest children – who are 21 and 22 – home alone for a long weekend and you could not have convinced me five years ago I would have been brave enough to abandon my ship like that.

Many years ago, back when my kids were still young and listened to what I said, I enjoyed an active social life. I went out to dinner and the movies with friends. I attend...

30 Free Apps to Test Drive Before Freshman Year

Once you touch down in the never-never land of summer between high school graduation and freshman year, the time you spend with your teen in the very same room is rare and precious. Though you want to nab him to shop for dorm provisions and to complete his college paperwork, all he really wants to do is check his group texts to see where and when his friends are gathering next. But snare your illusive teen, ask him to sit with you, phone in hand, and take a look at a these great free apps to...

4 Crucial Additions to the College Dorm List

College freshmen are finalizing plans for school and, no doubt, their university has provided them with a long list of necessary items – immunization forms, financial information, and registration instructions. In our household, my wife and teen have downloaded the college dorm list and headed off to Bed Bath and Beyond to get the requisite shower caddies and surge protectors. They’ve rented the micro fridge and selected the meal plan. The items on the list are nearly all checked off. But spe...

Drug Addiction: What Parents Need to Know

When my oldest was about a week old I remember looking down into his beautiful eyes and being struck by an overwhelming sense of fear. Icy terror washed over me as I realized the full weight of my responsibility for this tiny human. How was I going to do this right? What was I going to do wrong? I knew I’d do something wrong, would it scar him for life? I was the one who would have to teach him to navigate a world I was not sure I fully understood myself.

We are parents. We have all had this...