Reply to Insisting that DC's college be within driving distance...reasonable or not?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So- here goes.  The number of kids with mental illness first appearing in college has absolutely skyrocketed since Covid.

Anecdotally this is what I know:
2 co-workers (kids placed on psychaitric hold)
2 neighbors (kids fell into deep depression; parents had to fly out and bring them home)
1 woman at gym (son had first schizophrenia attack)
2 friends of neighbor's kids (depression and had to take semesters off)
1 good friend's son picked up by police wandering with first mental break--ended up in jail in another state because police didn't recognize symptoms

Studies/surveys now show kids in this demo group --30-35% are suffering from mental illness.  And boys with depression can show absolutely zero signs to close family members and friends.

We aren't allowing our kids to go West to school. Not just for this reason, but also because with the airlines and the trouble and expense of flights and for the fact for both of them their intended majors are much better served in this area.

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For the majority of these, I would not respond by jumping in my car to drive 7 hours. [/quote]

The one sitting in a jail cell in a mental break DEFINITELY needed his parents to show up. And it was traumatic for everyone.  If they hadn't stepped in it would have been ugly.  They were able to drive him to and select an in-patient facility near their home.  There is no way he would have gotten out of prison, had the proper legal representation and been able to be transported in his manic, schizophrenic state without his parents taking him.  They were luckily 75 minute drive away.[/quote]

But you cannot live your life expecting the worst things to happen.  Vast majority of kids are not going to have a mental breakdown while at college.  So yes, if your kid has medical issues or mental health issues already, then maybe you need to consider a place "closer to home".  But most of us don't plan our lives around the worst case scenarios happening to us.    
If that happened, most of us would put that airfare on a CC and figure out how to pay the $1K later.  Fact is, 99.999% of the time your kid will be just fine and have no issues.  Fact at most colleges there will be a significant number of parents on the Parent FB pages who live within 2-3 hours and would happily step up to assist in an emergency until you can get there---I've seen it on all 3 of my kid's college parent FB pages---I've seen local parents go to the hospital and sit with a sick kid (who needed an appendectomy) until their parents arrived 18 hours later.  Sure it's not mom/dad but it's a caring adult who is a parent.    Whenever someone posts with even a minor "emergency" there are always kind caring parents who step up to help....sometimes even faculty who monitor the page as well.  So your kid will not be alone in an emergency if you are willing to reach out for assistance.     [/quote]

Except it’s happening at alarming rates these days.  30% or more.  [/quote]

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