change

I think the root of all evil during 2nd semester senior year comes from the fact that a serious change is about to take place. As parents, we know exactly what is about to happen. Our kids, they only know what they have heard from other people. This makes us stress...and makes it harder to focus and do what you know how to do.

Think for a minute, if you will, about what your kids have known up until this point. For the last 13 years they have gotten up and gone to school. They get up because you make them get up. We make our kids breakfast. They eat breakfast because it is there to eat. They put on clean clothes because we have washed them. They go to school because we take them.

Who remembers freshman year?

I don't mind sharing my freshman year. I missed my 8 am English class more times than I can count. I grabbed a Diet Coke and a Rice Krispy treat from the vending machine on my dorm hall for breakfast most mornings. I often wore clothes that were...not fresh, but then in college your standards do go down a bit. I mean, after all...you do have to do your own laundry there. Like...it doesn't get done if you don't do it. And sometimes laundry money gets used for other things.

So with all of the other things that are going on, it's important to keep things in perspective. We all know our kids are going to go to college and do the same things we did. While we can't believe that they are going to leave, they can't wait to get out. It's always been like that, and it will always be like that.

A lot of my kids talk about how "over" they are of high school. I can remember that feeling too. This is our last big push as parents to make sure they don't go off and mess up. Like I said, it's a big change...for all of us. Take it one day at a time and just remember that you were once them.