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WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOUR CHILD LEAVES FOR COLLEGE: A Complete Guide for Parents Only | 
 enlarge | Author: Mary Spohn
Publisher: Atlantic Publishing Company (FL)
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $13.88
You Save: $8.07 (37%)
New (3) Used (4) from $13.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 166638
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 1601382189
Dewey Decimal Number: 378.198
EAN: 9781601382184
ASIN: 1601382189
Publication Date: June 17, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
According to experts in the field of psychology, more than half of parents experience some sort of separation anxiety when their child leaves for college. You may have been looking forward to your child s departure for 18 years, but now that the time has finally come you are experiencing mixed emotions. What to Expect When Your Child Leaves for College will provide you with valuable information and will help make the transition easier. In this new book, you will learn how to encourage independence, how to offer support, how to handle the drop-off, how to deal with empty nest syndrome, how to talk to your child about his or her emotions, how to keep the lines of communication open, how to plan meaningful family time, and how to teach your child to live on his or her own. Additionally, you will be provided with insight into your child s emotions, which will help you understand his or her behavior, such as spending excessive amounts of time with friends, ignoring you, or being disagreeable. You will learn how to handle the emotional rollercoaster, how to give your child time to adjust to college life, how to prepare for your child s first visit home, and how to help others deal with the transition. By reading this book, you will learn how your life will change, and you will discover ways to fill the void. What to Expect When Your Child Leaves for College provides you with countless ways to prepare yourself for your child s departure, as well as advice from parents, students, and psychologists. Whether your first child is leaving for college or it is your youngest child going away to school, you will find ways to cope with this difficult time in your life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
Excellent, comforting advice for parents of college-bound kids August 14, 2008
The leap from high school to college is more than just a much-anticipated step for eager young 18 year-olds--it's a major adjustment for their parents as well. Mary Spohn is the mother of two college-aged sons, so she knows a thing or three about those adjustments. Her book gives parents honest and specific information on making the transition as easy as possible for maturing teenagers, and coaches them on what they need to know to successfully parent a modern college student.
The book begins with detailed advice for parents helping their high schooler pick a college: Spohn explains how to weigh the pros and cons of a distant versus relatively close school, how to decide between campuses with small or large student populations, and how to help your child determine if the campus culture will be the right place for them to spend the next several years of their lives. Spohn gives parents a check-list of things to help their children with before the big Departure Day arrives. The list includes everything from setting up health insurance and bank accounts, to teaching them how to run a virus scan on their computer, what to do if (God forbid!) they get in a car wreck, and how to clean leather shoes.
The final two sections of the book deal with the college experience from first the student's, then the parent's point of view. In the Student's Experience section, Spohn gently reminds parents that although their children may deal with bouts of homesickness and exposure to unsavory influences, their role as a parent has subtly changed: while they still need to be there for their children as advisors, listeners, and comforters, they need to constantly guide their college-aged kids towards adulthood and independence. In the Parent's section, Spohn encourages parents to combat empty-nest feelings by recapturing and striving towards the old dreams and goals that they may have put on hold while raising children.
Throughout the book, Spohn speaks to parents in a kind, straightforward, reassuring tone. She acknowledges that some of the college years may be rocky for parents because they are learning to transition from "parenting a child to becoming the parent of an adult." However, with its helpful information, this book should ease the way for many parents.
Going to college is a stressful time for parents and kids alike August 9, 2008
Going to college is a stressful time for parents and kids alike; What to Expect When Your Child Leaves for College: A Complete Guide for Parents Only is an essential key to understanding how to handle kids before and after they go. Personal accounts of how the author handled her two eldest sons as they left for college warn readers of common mistakes and how to learn from them. What to Expect When Your Child Leaves for College will prove invaluable for any parent whose child is embarking upon a college education, whether at the local community college or a far distant university.
 Cute and informative July 3, 2008
Believe it or not, you will need to remind your college-bound teenager to remember to send a thank you letter, or a birthday card to a relative--with the return address. In fact, you may have to send an IM, or a text message to their phone every now and then in order to remind them to separate the lights from the darks when they wash their clothes.
It may be basic information, but you may miss these details amid the well of tears that have formed in your eyes in preparation for you child's departure from the nest. In the meantime, your child is relishing in the freedom they will soon explore.
Author Mary Spohn's book aids all parents, especially those still grappling with the fact that their child is growing up. She provides informative tips that you may miss and often hilarious accounts dealing with her own college-bound children.
It begins by setting up and reminding parents about the college experience. It lets them know what to expect from the school and describes how to handle the college search and select schools that are appropriate for you and your child's comfort level. It describes what to review with your child when they are away, and it slowly reassures parents and eases their emotional grip over their child's well-being.
One very important piece of information she addresses well and that's often overlooked are the miscellaneous expenses. Higher education isn't cheap, and a distinct picture of financial expectations is extremely helpful. For instance, Spohn says besides the tuition, books and room and board are health insurance, fraternity fees and storage fees. She reminds you to factor in the cost of transporting your child to and from school during breaks, and what that could possibly entail, such as dirty laundry and band equipment.
Most importantly, she relieves the emotions of the newly distant relationship by reminding you of parent days and sharing her techniques to cheer up her sons.
The book is an entertaining read that will provide a sense of comfort during the transitory period.
What to Expect When Your Child Leaves for College June 30, 2008
There are 2 types of parents; those who count the days until graduation and those who suffer from "empty nest syndrome." Regardless of which type of parent you are, this book offers a practical guide on a range of topics from "Choosing a College Where Your Student will Thrive" to "Re-Feathering the Nest." This book is one of the most practical guides you'll ever need while navigating your child onto the path of adulthood and college. This is the first book I've seen that addresses not only the finances but the emotional separation issues. Not only does this book provide valuable information for parents, but also the student. A must buy.
Rating: 5
Sending Them Off! June 25, 2008
Sending your child off to college is one of those terrifying experiences that can result in heaven or hell--or so it seems. Your mind has been wracked by the horror stories of children estranged, sick, pregnant, partying, falling from their parent's faith, slipping into terrible lifestyles, being corrupted by sickening and demented ideologies; but your conscience has been just as wracked by the image of the helicopter parent, the nagging, puritanical, ultimatum-giving, hen-pecking, fun-stealing, ultimately repudiated parent. What will you do? How will you cope? Just what is college like today? And not only this, but how will you pay for this headache? What's the deal on scholarships, financial aid, saving for college?
Most parents have to deal with it. As with any major event in life--it's best to be prepared.
And in this book we have a fascinating and searching opportunity for you to become prepared. Starting right out from the beginning--the last days of highschool, the process of picking out which college your child will attend--Mary Spohn describes what you can expect in very readable, frequently humorous, prose.
She doesn't skimp on the details, either. I laughed at chapters like Things To Teach Your Children Before They Leave Home, when they included things like How To Send a Birthday Card or Thankyou to a Relative--but I had to shake my head, remembering my own unpreparedness in these very areas. It took me two years and several estranged Aunts before I got around to learning how to write thankyou cards--some things parents expect their children to pick up by osmosis, which they would learn better with a little explicit advice.
The book is divided into three main sections--Planning for College, The Student's Experience, and The Parent's Experience. This is wise--as is much else in the book--in that it emphasizes the most important things in considering college. First planning. No amount of preparation is too much. Second, the value of maintaining the perspective of the student while dealing with your own experiences--especially your worries. Things like the "random act of independence" are sympathetically described, so that if you come home during one of your child's breaks to discover your clothes being improperly washed (and shrunken) you too will be able to see the assumption of responsibility, clumsy though it may be, for what it is.
The section on financial concerns--the subject of so many other off-to-college books--is not reason to buy the book. As far as it goes, the advice there is accurate, but you will not discover how to pay for college from this book. Instead, the real insight is into the daily concerns and tiny details of living that both children and their parents must deal with when they go off to college. Particularly valuable is the chapter that addresses the college student's changing relation to "home"--especially the routinely messed-up ritual of coming home for the summer. Wisely and graciously, Mary Spohn advises parents and college students how to get along with one another during these difficulties periods, and how to shepherd their relationship through the changes that come with independence and changing beliefs.
I would recommend this book to any parent anxious to know what will come of the momentous event of sending their child off to college. It is surprisingly inoffensive considering the many potentially difficult subjects it addresses, putting forth an idea of the good parent as one easy-going yet strong, accepting yet firm. And it brings to light many aspects of the event that will simply not occur to you unless or until you actually encounter them.
I give it a five.
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