When you have kids, you never imagine that there will ever come a stage when you are helping them pack for university. Total emotional rollercoaster of mixed emotions! On the one hand you are really proud, on the other you are totally terrified – how will they cope! The September moving in date seemed so far in the future, additionally until the grades come through, you don’t actually know where they are going. Once everything’s definite, there isn’t much time to prepare. Thankfully focusing on the practicalities helped to keep my emotions in check, until the final hug goodbye. The fact that my son can’t cook anything other than toast, was also a worry – bit of a “mummy fail” there! This was emphasised before he went when he tried to open a tin of beans with a pizza cutter!
My son had his heart set on Liverpool and achieved the grades to get on the course he wanted. Luckily as his mind was set early on, we managed to put a deposit down on accommodation central to where he’s studying – central to everything really – especially the nightlife!
Moving in day was chaos – imagine around 300, 18 year olds arriving at one block of flats at the same time! There were only two lifts and the queue was enormous and I’ve never seen so many duvets, pillows, fairly lights and alcohol. Of course my son had been allocated his room on the top floor, which made for amazing views, but climbing flights of stairs, laden down with “stuff” was pretty exhausting!
A few weeks have passed now and everything seems to be going well. We speak (well I speak and he grunts) daily and his younger brother is on his IG and Snapchat account, so I can check if he’s ok. To be fair, I think he’s totally embraced the social side to uni and fingers crossed he’s turning up to lectures! He’s coming home at the weekend and we can’t wait to see him. I’m sure he’ll have lots of washing and I’ll have three days to feed him lots of vegetables!
For those parents with kids going to uni next year, I was amazed at how much stuff he needed to take – I suppose they’re setting up a home for the first time! We wrote lots of lists and still forgot essentials like A4 paper! One gift, which was greatly appreciated by my son was a sandwich toaster, he probably considers a toasted sandwich as his hot meal for the day!
