Tag Archives: college
I Am NOT a Useless Waste!
Has it happened? Have I become a crotchety old lady? Do I abhor certain kinds of music because I’m too old to get it? Am I shocked at some of the things that “young people” wear these days?
Possibly so. But I’m dead certain of one thing – people are much more rude than they were when I was a young whippersnapper.
Because we have a website I am painfully aware that there are those that don’t treat others with civility. I’ve quit reading the online comments on news stories – it’s horrific.
Then, out of nowhere, cyberspace-type incivility came crashing into Real Life. In a manner that I couldn’t ignore or justify… CONTINUE READING >>
No, We Won’t Buy You a…
Our main goal as parents was to end up with happy, healthy, self-sufficient adults.We can’t tell anyone how to do this — everyone’s different and Lord knows we made our share of mistakes along the way — but we can offer an insight that we’ve gained through our own offspring’s transitions from childhood to adulthood.
Don’t give kids everything they want, just everything they need.
A whole lot of what they want is stupid crap and… CONTINUE READING >>
Adult “Kids” Say the Darndest Things (on Twitter)
A treasury of tweets that every parent of an adult kid will love! These guys are SO funny!
On Being Replaced
Bounce That Boomerang
The subject of Boomerang “Kids” has been in the news a lot lately, and the story we’re being sold is that poor, brave youngsters with new diplomas in hand have no choice but to move back into their old bedrooms at Mom and Dad’s house.
All sorts of numbers have been bandied about, some say a quarter of recent grads are unemployed or underemployed, others say half, and one completely unscientific study proclaiming the preposterous idea that 85 percent… CONTINUE READING >>
Are You a Snow Plow Parent? 7 Modern Parenting Terms
This glossary of modern parenting terms from around the world provides a cautionary tale through definitions. Could a Snow Plow Parent accidently raise a Kidult in a perpetual state of Adultescence?Snow Plow Parents
Like the snow removal apparatus, a Snow Plow Parent will be sure to… CONTINUE READING >>
Creating the ULTIMATE College Care Package – A GN Guide
Let’s brainstorm and come up with ideas for college care package for our newly “empty” nested friends!
Our youngest, The Boy, was entering his second year in college. He was third kid that I had gone through the away-at-school process with, so I was starting to run low on the groovy care package ideas.
I really needed some help. I decided that I should hand it over to the experts. Our scholarly readers… CONTINUE READING >>
Get a Job!
Once again an article online got me thinking. While I don’t necessarily disagree with The Wall Street Journal‘s premise, the headline, Why Kids Today Have it Worse Than Their Parents (Ben Casselman), sure sounds whiney.But the meat of the article has some good infonuggets:
“Today’s 20-somethings are, broadly speaking, the children of the last of the Baby Boomers, those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s. That generation, like this one, came of age in the midst of a brutal recession: The unemployment rate for 18-24 year-olds topped 17% at the end of 1982. (In 2010, it briefly crossed 18%.)”
As a twenty-something back then, yeah, I remember that time well. Things were tight, but we got through it OK.
Now, having recently sent three newly-minted adults out into the world, I have firsthand experience of how both recessions have effected young adults. Lucky me.
It’s no secret that we believe… CONTINUE READING >>
The Old College Pry
How do we know when we’ve become too involved in our offspring’s college education?
Is it okay to call a professor about a dispute over a test score? Should we proofread their papers? Should we have access to their grades if we are paying tuition? Should we storm into the Dean’s office?
I interviewed some college professors and their stories will amaze you… CONTINUE READING >>
THE Talk
“I’m eighteen now, I can do what I want.”The dreaded time when the spawn are technically adults but still in high school. At that age, it would seem that “adult” means the freedom to head out and start being stupid at top speed.
The standard “Not in my house” or “As long as you live under my roof, you’ll abide by my rules” replies didn’t seem to sink in with our young ‘uns. In fact, I could almost see the heels digging in to the floor.
One day while driving our oldest, The Piglet, to school, I got fed up and burst out with what became known in our family as “THE Talk.” No, not THAT “the talk”, this one:… CONTINUE READING >>
Helicopter Mom – You Are Grounded!
“A mother is only as happy as her saddest child,” a close friend’s grandmother used to say. When I first heard her say this, all three of my children were young and safely in the nest so I could totally relate. Somehow I thought once they were grown up this would change. It didn’t.Trouble finds its way into everyone‘s lives – and as much as we hate it – trouble finds our adult children. Whether it rears its ugly head in a… CONTINUE READING >>
The Plan is No Plans
On the same day that we officially became “empty” nesters, the very day our youngest started college, we boarded a plane headed for Zürich. We didn’t really plan for the two events to happen on the same day, it just worked out that way.
What WAS planned was to… CONTINUE READING >>
What in the World of Warcraft is This Guy Thinking?
One of our readers sent me an email that really touched me:
“I am not completely an empty nester unfortunately. My 20 year old son was not able to return to college this fall because of the lack of loans and grants available to him. So now he is doing nothing except for playing the computer game WoW (World of Warcraft) most of his waking hours. He did just purchase a small business that will make him a small living, but I pray he goes back to college. He is very bright and it would be such a waste if he didn’t.
Hannah”
Hannah, my heart… CONTINUE READING >>
When Hurricanes Blow
Our daughter, Decibel, spent a whopping twenty minutes at the college of her choice, Tulane University. She never attended a single class. It has to be the shortest college career in history.There was a storm a brewin‘. And it was a whopper.
On a beautiful August day, Decibel landed in New Orleans ready to take on the world. She was especially giddy since she had been chosen from the pool of incoming freshman in the Musical Theater program to sing at orientation — a high honor indeed. Not to mention instant… CONTINUE READING >>
Getting Gilded in St. Augustine
Irony. Sometimes people say it is impossible to define, but we think this comes pretty close: The Fountain of Youth is in America’s oldest city.Hmmm, on second thought, maybe that makes perfect sense, perhaps it is the secret to St. Augustine’s… CONTINUE READING >>
St. Augustine Opulence
enlarge video
St. Augustine was the winter playground for the turn-of-the-century filthy rich! Unbelievable opulence! Good grief! Can you BELIEVE how cool… CONTINUE READING >>
Do the Charleston!
Without a destination in mind other than south to bug out of the snow, we headed for the coastal “Lowcountry” and discovered one of America’s most interesting cities.
Something stood out to us as we pedaled around – many homes had odd doors facing the street leading to outside porches. Having never seen such before, we dubbed them “porch doors,” and tossed around quite a few theories as to why they existed before finding out their true function. Known as “hospitality doors,” these portals were a way of communicating… CONTINUE READING >>
HOliday HOmecoming HOopla
The holidays are fast approaching so now is a good time to explore some of the unique aspects of family gatherings for empty nesters.(A little note from the authors: When we refer to Christmas, please feel free to substitute Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, Saturnalia, winter solstice or whatever it is you celebrate. We are only using Christmas as an example because it is our family tradition, and to keep from having to write three or four names every time we refer to a holiday. Absolutely no slight is intended or any preference for one over another. If your family is like ours, no doubt any one of them can be just as crazy as the next.)
Thanksgiving, Christmas or both… CONTINUE READING >>
Facebook and Memory Lane
About a month ago, a thought popped into my head. What ever happened to Tamera? Where did that gangly, sweet and truly unique little girl with the pig tails and big glasses that I went to Junior High with end up? What did she become?We were the original Valley Girls. We hung out with boys who skateboarded, went to the beach every weekend and said “Like” and “You know” like, way too much, you know? I wonder if Tamera finds it ironic, as I do, when she hears today’s college girls speaking like this, while most of us old school Valley Girls don’t anymore? Actually, I’ve managed to completely kill off the “likes,” but the “you knows” keep sneaking in… CONTINUE READING >>
Graduation A Go-Go
“Graduation speeches were invented largely in the belief that college students should never be released into the world until they have been properly sedated.” – Garry TrudeauBetween our brood of three and my brother’s trio we have six kids within a ten year age span. That used to mean some hilarious… CONTINUE READING >>
Major in Mustard at Poupon U
Having just seen the movie “Sling Blade” on video with its classic line “Mustard’s good on ‘em to me” we simply could not resist a trip to Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin and its world famous Mustard Museum. Much to our delight, what we discovered was a confluence of cheesy tourist diversions. A veritable treasure trove of camp with metal monsters, trolls, the great outdoors and of course, mustard.
Before we even made it into town we… CONTINUE READING >>
Kalamazoo Appy Crawl
As the tee shirts say, “Yes, There Really IS a Kalamazoo!” It’s the kind of name that makes you want to stop and see what’s going on. Kalamazoo is an Algonquian Indian word meaning “boiling pot” and the city has gained fame through celery, taxi cab production, Gibson guitars, the Upjohn “friable pill” and the Kalamazoo stove. With all of this going for it, we had to drop by and try an appy crawl in this tidy little Michigan college town, proving that appy crawls can be done in anyone’s hometown.
All roads led downtown, which boasts the first pedestrian mall in the United States. Since 1959 it has hosted fun little… CONTINUE READING >>
