College parent FB pages 10% useful 90% Cray Cray

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After over a year on our incoming sophomore’s college parent FB page, we realized early on the usefulness of such pages. While it was helpful to find recommended hotels, restaurants and the many local parents willing to help our kid in a pinch until we might have needed to get there, we found most posts are those of lawn mowing parents looking to get every obstacle out of the way of their pure sugar spun adults.

Now we look on with amusement of those who share every pulled fire alarm to the parent who is taking every possible measurement of the sample dorm room to build headboards and desk cubbies which will end in the dumpster at the end of freshman year based on what we saw at move out.

Parents were shocked I tell you no service came in to clean weekly or so their kids laundry. My kid is no angel and learned from her experience and is far from perfect, but reading some of these parents I feel for their kids first time away.

One of my favorites was the parent asking if getting a Dyson Vacuum ($800+) was worth it for their snowflake! As if any college student actually uses a vacuum.

Funny. Both of my boys requested vacuums after they moved into the dorms. They aren't neat-niks either.

All three of my kids too. And when they were at home during the early stages of the pandemic, they vacuumed at our house. I miss this service now that they have returned to school and work.

[Anonymous]

Todays drama llama post with now 56 comments is a mom in a panic because she cannot find a bed skirt for a lofted full size bed with a 32” drop ANYWHERE!

What college student needs a bed skirt for a dorm!!?

[Anonymous]

Meh -- our kid's parent FB page had a question from the parent of a first-year about whether to buy the college health insurance. Several folks responded (answer was "no", BTW). Seems like a pretty reasonable question and helpful answers. I mean, nobody's forcing you to look at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meh -- our kid's parent FB page had a question from the parent of a first-year about whether to buy the college health insurance. Several folks responded (answer was "no", BTW). Seems like a pretty reasonable question and helpful answers. I mean, nobody's forcing you to look at it.

Plenty of the questions are reasonable, that's why I joined and stay on my kid's FB parents pages. But at least 40-60% are hilarious and helicopter parents. The above is an example of such. Or parents complaining that their kid's dorm doesn't have AC when only 30% of the dorms have AC and it's not needed past the first 2-3 weeks of the year and normally not needed in May (picked my kid up in May and it was 50-60 degrees most years). It's almost as if they did no research at all on the university housing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh -- our kid's parent FB page had a question from the parent of a first-year about whether to buy the college health insurance. Several folks responded (answer was "no", BTW). Seems like a pretty reasonable question and helpful answers. I mean, nobody's forcing you to look at it.

Plenty of the questions are reasonable, that's why I joined and stay on my kid's FB parents pages. But at least 40-60% are hilarious and helicopter parents. The above is an example of such. Or parents complaining that their kid's dorm doesn't have AC when only 30% of the dorms have AC and it's not needed past the first 2-3 weeks of the year and normally not needed in May (picked my kid up in May and it was 50-60 degrees most years). It's almost as if they did no research at all on the university housing.

"How can my daughter get a single room with a private bathroom as a freshman?"

I don't understand where these people went to college that they think some things are possible.

[Anonymous]

A parent just asked "Were we supposed to register for our classes at orientation?"

I hope that kid is coming from someplace far away and get weeks away from the parent who thinks they're both taking classes. My goodness.

[Anonymous]

I always post there is no we at college. Many people just block me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But the 10% useful is so very useful!!

I've got one heading to Syracuse and I REFUSE to call him "My Slice" the way some other parents do....

Nooooo!

I went to Syracuse and I would have been mortified if my parents had called me their slice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh -- our kid's parent FB page had a question from the parent of a first-year about whether to buy the college health insurance. Several folks responded (answer was "no", BTW). Seems like a pretty reasonable question and helpful answers. I mean, nobody's forcing you to look at it.

Plenty of the questions are reasonable, that's why I joined and stay on my kid's FB parents pages. But at least 40-60% are hilarious and helicopter parents. The above is an example of such. Or parents complaining that their kid's dorm doesn't have AC when only 30% of the dorms have AC and it's not needed past the first 2-3 weeks of the year and normally not needed in May (picked my kid up in May and it was 50-60 degrees most years). It's almost as if they did no research at all on the university housing.

"How can my daughter get a single room with a private bathroom as a freshman?"

I don't understand where these people went to college that they think some things are possible.

Yup! Or the parents that are shocked I tell you that their kid has to live on campus Sophomore year. Really, it's quite clear on the university website and talked about in all campus visits that there is a 2 year residency requirement at both of my kid's colleges. They talk it up as it "improves college outcomes" by having kids live on campus, so you would have to be fairly clueless to have not learned this before becoming a student.
Yet every single year, there are many complaints about it, some that have even signed off campus leases before finding this out. And these are definitely not "parents without internet access or those whom English is a 2nd language or first generational parents" these are parents that should easily be able to know this and spend a lot of their day on FB, so could easily spend it on the university website finding this info.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The annoying part about the parent page I’m on is how so many have not read any of the material from the school and just come to the FB page asking what is already available to them. The kids are beginning to get firm by saying look at the resource (it’s called different things at different schools obviously). Or parents who just now are trying to figure out how to get their student to/from the school because it’s not near a major transportation hub and are SHOCKED that this is handled by the school.

This x100. DC’s school is great about providing info on line and via webinars and sending reminders to students and parents about deadlines, etc. and easily half or more of the questions are about things that have been conveyed multiple times in several different ways. It does make me feel better about how my DC is handing things. I was worried that he wasn’t sufficiently on top of everything he needs to do, but then I saw all the parents of kids who, for example, haven’t even tried to sign into their student email account yet.

[Anonymous]

Yes OP, kind of like many of the threads on DCUM

(see the athletic pre-read one that has turned into crazytown)

[Anonymous]

The fb group for college parents is stressing me out. People keep posting all these things for the dorm room that I never even considered! I don’t think we will get them but it’s still stressful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh -- our kid's parent FB page had a question from the parent of a first-year about whether to buy the college health insurance. Several folks responded (answer was "no", BTW). Seems like a pretty reasonable question and helpful answers. I mean, nobody's forcing you to look at it.

Plenty of the questions are reasonable, that's why I joined and stay on my kid's FB parents pages. But at least 40-60% are hilarious and helicopter parents. The above is an example of such. Or parents complaining that their kid's dorm doesn't have AC when only 30% of the dorms have AC and it's not needed past the first 2-3 weeks of the year and normally not needed in May (picked my kid up in May and it was 50-60 degrees most years). It's almost as if they did no research at all on the university housing.

"How can my daughter get a single room with a private bathroom as a freshman?"

I don't understand where these people went to college that they think some things are possible.

They are possible. It is called "rent an apartment"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh -- our kid's parent FB page had a question from the parent of a first-year about whether to buy the college health insurance. Several folks responded (answer was "no", BTW). Seems like a pretty reasonable question and helpful answers. I mean, nobody's forcing you to look at it.

Plenty of the questions are reasonable, that's why I joined and stay on my kid's FB parents pages. But at least 40-60% are hilarious and helicopter parents. The above is an example of such. Or parents complaining that their kid's dorm doesn't have AC when only 30% of the dorms have AC and it's not needed past the first 2-3 weeks of the year and normally not needed in May (picked my kid up in May and it was 50-60 degrees most years). It's almost as if they did no research at all on the university housing.

"How can my daughter get a single room with a private bathroom as a freshman?"

I don't understand where these people went to college that they think some things are possible.

They are possible. It is called "rent an apartment"

OK, but will the apartment be right next to the building where she has most of her classes? Also, why is the campus so spread out? And pick one of the following: I cannot believe my kid is required to live on campus for X years/I cannot believe there is no guaranteed on-campus housing after year X

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fb group for college parents is stressing me out. People keep posting all these things for the dorm room that I never even considered! I don’t think we will get them but it’s still stressful.

same
but they keep posting all these things for their kids' rooms but end with "remember less is more"!