This September was a time of good-byes for us. Labour Day Monday we not only attended the funeral of my 93 year-old grandmother, but also dropped two of our children off at their respective university residences. 

There are several universal truths that parents need to face as their children leave home to attend  school:  

No matter what they tell you, the only way you know for sure that they ever change the sheets on their bed, is for you to offer to wash them and force them to bring them home.

The flurry of phone calls and email from the first week away will not gradually fade away.  They will abruptly end as soon as they make new friends and/or classes begin.  

Field trips are not always part of a course.

You will only ever know about half of their friends, a quarter of their marks and none of what they’ve been up to.