Sophie is on her way to officially being a college kid. But before that happens, she’s got a lot of adventures in progress and coming up. She’s spending most of the summer as a camp counselor in Washington state. And then she’ll be traveling in Europe for most of the Fall. Finally, she’ll be settling down as a college student in January on the East Coast. She’s all over the place! 🙂
So I’m giving some thought to how to best keep up with her. Perhaps you can pick up a few tips for how to stay in touch with college kids of your own.
Accept that it won’t be the same as it used to be
This has been a strange thing to wrap my head around. I’m simply not going to be as involved in the details of Sophie’s life as I used to be. It’s a fact. So once you accept this reality, I think it’s easier to devise strategies to stay in touch with college kids. You aren’t going to hear from them as frequently as you once did (every day? nope).
And Sophie is all over the place! She’s out of state/out of country. She doesn’t have easy access to her phone all the time (she’s working!) She’ll be in different time zones. She may have access to mail or she may not. And she’s going to have different demands on her time than she used to. This is not like the COVID days where she was sitting in the dining room on Zoom calls for days on end. (Thank God)
So I’m trying to be nimble. Be grateful for all the contact I get, especially when it’s live. And rely more on asynchronous methods to stay in touch with college kids.
Adapt to how and when they like to hear from you
When Sophie calls these days, we drop everything. Our schedules don’t align very frequently, and her work schedule is unpredictable. So if you can take a 1/2 hour call at the drop of a hat, go for it. But also realize that it might not always work, and that’s ok. Dear Husband has taken calls solo while I slept. I write a lot more letters and postcards than he does.
As her life gets a little more settled in college, we may try to set up a regular time to call. I remember well the Sunday night calls from college to my parents. It might work for us too, despite the many changes that have taken place since then.
Don’t be afraid to go old school
I am sure at this point that readers of this blog know that I am stationery crazy. I am not ashamed! 🙂 So I have been writing letters, cards, postcards since she left for camp. And I may tuck a few into her suitcase before she leaves for Europe. It’s asynchronous, and Sophie likes getting mail. And although I don’t press her on it, I love getting her letters back to me. They are something I will treasure forever.
…Or try something new
We’re trying all sorts of things. Dear Husband joined Instagram! I make sure to send Sophie a Marco Polo every once in a while. We may even need to join TikTok if that’s what she likes. Basically, we have to be flexible. Her life, our lives, and how we connect will need to adapt.
We’ve got a lot of change ahead of us. In order to stay in touch with college kids, we all need to adapt and be clear about what we need. I’m looking forward to seeing how our relationship grows and matures over the coming years.
