If your kid goes to a school 8+ hours away, and you helped move them out of the dorm

[Anonymous]

I am 38 and walking daily but this would do me in. Don't beat yourself up. I am diabetic so sometimes its literally your hormones that can do you in or not. Ideal would drive up one day, move next, then drive back. Great that your DS seems pretty cooperative.

[Anonymous]

My 64 year old cousin is married to a 74 year old guy and their freshman kid goes to college 8 hours away and they do the drop off and pick up and unloading.

For Christ sake when I was in Amherst a few years ago Harrison Ford was dropping kid off at Amherst.

You are young enough to be the child of the older dads doing drop off.

[Anonymous]

Store it or bring a dolly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm mid 50s and have been driving DC to Boston for years. I stop at least 3 times to stretch and get the blood flowing, refill the water, eat something healthy(ish). I avoid as much of 95 as I can. Personally, I think Connecticut traffic is the worst.

I usually drive up, take kids to dinner, stay in a hotel, help pack the car in the morning and then we do shifts driving home.

There really isn't anything my kid would be storing up at school. He brings home the computer equipment and clothes. It's really the computer equipment that makes the drive necessary.

Lots of students have fridges, A/C’s, fans, microwaves, bed risers, crates etc. that they don’t need at home; they’d store that sort of thing.A computer would take up pretty minimal space. The monitor can lie flat, and the rest can fit in a computer bag. A printer can be bulky, depending on what you have.

Expensive and saves no time. In fact adds time. My kid we just back car up to my two car garage. We dump most heavy stuff in there next day. We load up before we travel. Also when driving stuff home I don’t unload till next day anyhow.

So much each a heavy AC or Desk or bed from garage to back of truck, downside only kid and me can go as the Seats all down

[Anonymous]

I'm 49 and the drive would do me in. My back would hurt from just that. Can your kid get a storage place for the summer? I saw ads for a service that takes your kid's stuff to a storage place and then brings it back the following school year.

[Anonymous]

PP here. My DS is in college 20 mins away and I just picked up 4 trashbags of his stuff. I'm too tired to even bring them into the house. Lol! If he went to school that far away, I definitely spring for a storage unit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 64 year old cousin is married to a 74 year old guy and their freshman kid goes to college 8 hours away and they do the drop off and pick up and unloading.

For Christ sake when I was in Amherst a few years ago Harrison Ford was dropping kid off at Amherst.

You are young enough to be the child of the older dads doing drop off.

This thread has shown how old annd out of shape most of DCUM is.

[Anonymous]

This week I flew up for an event at the college, rented an SUV, packed up the kid, then drove home and returned the car here. It was great to only do one drive, esp since that drive was a nightmare of traffic (yesterday). When I got home at 10 pm I laid on the floor and did stretches while my husband and kid unloaded the car because I had to return it the next morning.

Next fall he will be taking a car, so one of us will drive up with him, help him settle in, then fly home. I'm a fan.

[Anonymous]

PP above--just to add that I had to do all the driving because it was a rental, so that was kind of annoying. Also let's just say this kid was not organized and I did some 6000 steps packing and cleaning his townhouse some before we headed out at noon. It was a tiring day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I may be really dense here - but how do carts and a dolly help when you're dealing with flights of stairs? Is it that they help you get the stuff to the car once you've reached the ground level?

Asking because we will be moving a kid in this fall and it's a 13 hour drive (headed to WI - Madison). I had assumed we'd drive, but I'm now re-thinking whether we should actually drive or not.

I remember that some schools help kids move-in (I don't actually know if this is the case for Wisconsin) but it sounds like one should definitely not expect assistance moving out, is that right?

The bins are like hotel laundry carts. And you take the elevator and make multiple trips. One parent stays in the room and starts unpacking, the other goes down to the car to load the bin up again.

On the way back, it's reverse. Hopefully your kid has packed up. One of ours (in Boston) put the stuff in storage over the summer. The other (closer drive, no summer storage) did not, and wasn't actually done packing. Same thing, one parent started making trips with bins to the car and the other packed and cleaned.

While there were lots of friendly faces "helping" with load in and load out, the help isn't carrying items, it's more pointing you to where you need to go

Elevator? My dorms didn't have one, and DD's don't either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old are you? Are you super out of shape?

I am 40 and could do all that plus go for a run later in the day.

God, listen to yourself. If you have helpful info, provide it. Fitness can be fixed, douchery can’t.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How old are you? Are you super out of shape?

I am 40 and could do all that plus go for a run later in the day.

Nasty reply. Quite obnoxious and full of yourself.

[Anonymous]

I could not do what OP did, so I'm making my kid use Boomerang. They're gonna drop boxes off on the dorm, DC will pack it up (I hope) and it will be redelivered to the new dorm room in the fall.
https://www.boomerangstorage.com

[Anonymous]

My DC went to school an 8 hour drive away. We did pick him up at the end of freshman year. There were 2 of us and he didn’t have that much stuff. After that he was in a 12 month apartment so we didn’t drive for pickup until graduation. Storage is worth it if he won’t be in an apartment. We didn’t worry about cleaning stuff - DS knows how to operate a washing machine.

[Anonymous]

DH, who is 53 and in great shape, is driving 9 hours to pick up DS. Driving after work meeting the first day and arriving around 9 or 10. Sleeping in a hotel. Packing and driving back the next day.

I'm suggesting he bring the dolly I bought and he is arguing that it is "too heavy". DS is literally on the first floor of a dorm with a ramp entrance so I don't know what kind of nonsense he's talking about, but I will let him decide.