***Official back to school thread***

Moved my oldest into Drake two days ago for his freshman year. I am a mess of worry. Is he meeting people? Is he having fun and not just holed up in his room? I don't remember being this way before. At this stage I am more worried about the social aspect than his academics.
 
Every fall this time reminds me of my freshman year at ISU, and how my parents coped. I'm oldest of 4 kids and all of us and my stuff was packed in a station wagon for the trip to Ames. We ate lunch at Shakey's Pizza out west on Lincoln Way as I remember. Don't recall much of the lugging my belongings up two flights of stairs in Friley, do recall wondering whether I would be able to do everything I should. Didn't think much about mom and dad, and was happy to be away from the siblings, kind of. Very poignant because my dad died very unexpectedly in mid-June, and I never thought to ask him what it was like for them.
 
Also, what the hell is the deal with kids' obsession these days with those Stanley mugs?? Seriously, they're expensive and kids just leave the damn things every where and lose them anyway.

That and those big tumblers are pretty stupid.

I guess cups and thermoses don't do the same thing?
 
It's ALL stupid. I miss the days of *cover your ears kids*... drinking from a water fountain. And I didn't even DIE!!!!
I was this generation too but I get having a waterbottle too. 1 2 3 that's enough for me 3 or 4 times a day isn't enough water for a human.
 
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I was this generation too but I get having a waterbottle too. 1 2 3 that's enough for me 3 or 4 times a day isn't enough water for a human.
Bingo. What's wrong with being able to drink water when you are thirsty.
 
Apparently water bottles are the "in/cool" things these days. I don't get it either, we told our daughter if she wanted a Stanley she was paying for some of it with her own money so that is what she did. Oldest started 5th grade and this summer we had some "I'm going to be the only kid in 5th grade without a smart phone" meltdowns. Well our school has a no-phone policy during school hours K-12 so we wound up with a compromise and got her a Gizmo smart watch that we have set to be in school mode during school hours so its pretty much just a watch during school. This is the first year she will ride the bus as middle school is in a different town so she will now have to make sure she gets to the bus stop in time in the morning when 1 of us isn't home and let herself into the house when she gets home so I guess the smart watch at least gives us a line of communication if she has and issue before or after school if someone is not home.

Youngest is in 2nd grade, we have before and after daycare at her school which is nice that we don't have to adjust schedules for drop off and pickup. Also nice that we only have 1 in daycare now too so that's $400 a month we are saving this school year.

Everyone at my job has them.
 
Both my boys start school Monday. Waterloo has staggered start days, if it's your first year in a new building (K,1st, 6th, 9th) you went today and everyone else starts the day after, it's a remnant of the social distancing during Covid. I have a Senior and a Sophomore, it's the first year we're off the hook for being transportation before or after school.
 
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