When your child goes off to college

By Dr. Andre M. Perry
Contributing Columnist
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The house is too clean when your child goes off to college. You walk in expecting to see the reappearing trail of shoes, books and candy wrappers that led to a timed-out computer. All of which were scattered across the sofa you’d hope to watch nightly news upon. Now there’s plenty of room to sit down with your spouse and view any channel without interruption. And you do watch the news without interruption, without repartee.

When a child goes off to college, you realize how much your daily dialogue revolved around her. And now that most of get a bad credit loan today your subjects and predicates sit on a couch approximately 1,300 miles away, you’re only left with incomplete dispatches hurried before her first class.

And the house is so quiet. We used to think 50 Thanksgiving turkeys were in her room preparing for the St. Aug-Brother Martin football game. How many times did you yell up the stairs for her to turn down that fowl-mouth music? Now we get anxious to hear the rapping on the window created by a dragonfly trying to escape.

No need to sleep with ears wide-open waiting for her to come in e capital payday loan from the late night party. Theoretically, you can rest throughout the night, knowing she will manage her own affairs. However, the wanting to hear the door close at 2 a.m., keeps you restless. But do you really want to know want she’s doing at night in the dorm? You fall back to sleep.

When a child goes to college you realize, there’s so much more food in the refrigerator. How much did she actually consume in a week? The battle for the leftover pizza has ended. There’s no more race for the last serving of chicken payday loan avondale az casserole. No need to purchase Ramen noodles and banana-berry yogurt. You can feast from the real food you typically prepared. But it just sits in a pot, waiting for someone to mysteriously eat it.

In fact, everything is where you left it. Your car keys are never missing. You can find your comb, iPod cord, sweatshirt and magazine. The house is perfectly organized in your vision. You don’t have anyone to blame for missing things.

In parent orientation, the college officials told you how much your child would call home complaining about stomach- and headaches instead of addressing average loan rates the homesickness that typically afflicts them. Instead of receiving needy calls from who you thought was your best friend, you look at your phone hoping to see a missed call. The call you did receive was to ask for money. At least something hasn’t changed.

Because you have less to clean, less to shop for and more quiet time, you break out photo albums to see how cute your collegian was as an infant. It was just yesterday that she was completely dependent on you. Nestled comfortably in your arms, you fed, entertained and sheltered her mazuma payday loans from storms. When she left for college, you learned that she could cope with Hurricane Irene without pause, and you began to see how dependent you are to her.

We miss our incredibly smart, resourceful and beautiful new collegian. That’s okay. Baby birds leave the nest because they can fly. Our feelings of emptiness reflect how much we have given. She is ready for the next phase of her life. Now let’s prepare for ours.

This article was originally published in the September 5, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper