The 25 Things Every Kid Needs to Know Before Leaving Home

Raising two girls, I have found everything imaginable in the laundry. Except, of course, a cell phone, because that would be attached to a hand or an ear.

During one particular laundry load, at the end of the summer before my firstborn daughter’s high school senior year, it struck me that she would be leaving for college soon. I fretted. I had not prepared her. I had forgotten stuff — like how to check pockets before shoving things in the washer.Clearly, she wasn’t ready.

I know now that this...