24 hours!

Buckeye - Is this your first one going off to college?  If so I can tell you its going to be tough.  When my older one went away I had to resist the urge to contact him everyday.  If you want some unsolicited advice, here it is...

 

Give him a little room at first.  Resist the urge to txt him right away.  Give him a day or two to get acclimated.  Then send him a text.  He will be glad you did.  As much as you are missing him he will be missing you but will not know it.  They usually keep them pretty busy the first week of school.  The kids are having fun so they are not thinking about getting in touch with the parents.  After that I would send him a text every 4 or 5 days.  Call him once a week.  After about a month or so I found that he would text me with information or call if he wanted to hear a familiar voice or if he wanted advice.  

 

Its a tough transition but its probably tougher on the parents.  After a few months it gets better.

best of luck to you on this. I have 2 years to get mentally ready for it...not sure it is enough! I actually sent him to showcase recently with his grandpop because I had a few meeting I couldn't move, that was tough enough! It was certainly harder on me then it was for him.

Wow I remember how hard those first weeks were. Good Luck.

This worked for me.

BTW by the start of the Jr. year you will be bagging them to go back to school and get out of the house....

 

Lol....great replies so far....   My daughter is a junior in college...and they've lived with their mom (though only a mile away) the past couple years, so it's not like it's a new thing that they're moving out.  It's the not knowing how the baseball is going that will drive me nuts...lol.   He's only 45 minutes away...and 25 minutes from where I work, so it's not like he's moving across the country.   He keeps me updated on anything baseball related now, so I'm really not expecting things to be much different.  The town he's moving to has the best pizza in Ohio....so I'm sure if I ever feel like talking to him, I'll just text him and have him and his roommate meet me for lunch....trust me, they'll come running 

Food good-Free food BETTER!

Good Luck!  I am in the same boat.  We just dropped Ryno off on Sunday.

good luck you guys.  I'm two years away and imagining what you're going through is painful!

Wishing the Best. My empty nest started 6 weeks ago. My 2015's freshmen class is required to take two summer school classes at his D1 school. With weight training thrown in. He said he couldn't stand up strait by the first weekend there. More core work than he's used to. Attached is a text we received from him his 3rd day at school.LOL. He is home for a week now before the Fall session starts. He's excited to start practice on the main field. I'm looking forward to making trips to watch scrimmages in the fall.

Good luck to you and all the college freshmen this fall.

Dropped him off at the airport on Monday. Heading back to TT after being home for a week.   He was bored stiff at home.  He couldn't wait to get back.     Livn' the dream!

I can relate...

 

Just got back from the airport dropping my 2015 off to Boston...it is an incredible feeling of happiness for him and a void deep inside...and also a worry for me because I won't have any more high school baseball this fall or next spring!!...what am I going to do?

 

Funny part was last night that he had requested that I prepared dinner (I like to cook and am not too shabby). His request sounded like a guy on death row!...he wanted a "double surf and turf" to include filet mignon wrapped in bacon, lamb chops in rosemary salt, broiled lobster and skewered grilled jumbo shrimp brushed with lemon-garlic-butter sauce, and to top it with lemon pepper roasted (small-cut) potatoes. The meat medium, a nice pink hot. His reasoning was that he was not going to see what he calls good food for a while and wanted to remember the moment... and I obliged. The dinner was a success and he said that wanted to remember it until he can come back for Thanksgivings. 

 

While we as parents feel a void for now, I know, and I believe I that speak for all, that we can feel so proud of the kids not only for continuing their baseball, but also for starting their new grandiose step in life with a good education. We will always missed them and we can only be happy by remembering all those great baseball moments that we spent during all the summers. Think about this, no more showcases and tournaments during summer travel like we all used to do. Their summer ball will be pretty much by themselves from now on, and basically we can hope to see them play once in a while. 

 

It is their beginning of growth as men.

 

What an amazing pic.  A lot going on!

Good thing he is not like my son.  Going back to school on Friday to start his Jr. year.  Rather then eat a home cooked meal he has requested a dinner at on of the higher end steakhouses here in Chicagoland.

Same boat, exciting times, but quiet house difficult to get use too. Few hrs away and plan to hit some Fall games. Coach extended invite to parents to come as often as they can. Advice on texting, calling, etc-depends on your son/relationship. Some kids will like once wk contact, some will like texts every few days just to say hi. Every kid is diff. No one size fits all IMO. Our son has texted twice in 4 days just to ask money ?  It's all new and they may need to ask about med insurance, banking ?, etc. best we can do is be supportive but not clingy.  good luck to all.

It's been a long, long ride, but by this time tomorrow morning, the kid will be moved in to his dorm room, along with the other 7 incoming freshman baseball guys (no, not all one room...lol)   They get a week to get acclimated to school, then start right in to baseball.  The next couple months will be agonizing....knowing he is practicing/working out/trying out basically every day and I won't know what/how he is doing other than what I'll get in text messages or phone calls.  He's been playing baseball since he was 4 years old....and this will be the first time that I'm completely uninvolved for 2 months!    Hopefully I can get thru it without having a nervous breakdown of some kind....    Wish me luck....and good luck to all of you who are in the same situation over the next couple months!!!

 

Our Son's been playing since 4 years old too and this Freshman Fall will be our longest stretch of not seeing him play too.  

Hitting his mom hard also.

Fortunately he gave us many memories to tide us over (we hope).

Son got us a puppy to occupy us 2 weeks ago.

(instead of that 12 year old Cuban Shortstop I was thinking of adopting   

I could plagiarize 99% of your post.  

As the homie's say, I feel ya!

Hang in there buddy!  And be sure to post any tips for when I do the same in two years!

When my daughter went off to college I looked at my son and said, "Now we will know who did it." When my son headed for college I told him, "There won't be any 'did it' anymore."

About 16 hours...

for me, he's a college junior.  Two older siblings went before him... this should be easy by now.  Nope. 

 

It was a special summer, though.

 

He and another player from the area actually headed up a new summer college team to fill the void of one in our area that went defunct.  I coached 3rd.  They handled everything from roster building, fund-raising, team insurance, equipment, uniforms, lineups, playing time, press coverage, defensive alignments, pitching changes... did I mention I coached 3rd?  The first few games, I started reminding him of things he needed to do.  He was way ahead of me.  Quite a reversal of roles from years past.

 

The last few days, we headed down to the field... just the two of us.  Cage work.  On-field hitting.  OF reps.  I never cared much for spending a lot of time shagging balls.  I sure didn't mind this time around.  Maybe we'll get to squeeze one more round in this evening.

 

Yup!!!!

Hey, my 30 year old back at school and it felt like the first time and he has been on his own forever!!!

Some things never change.

Besg of luck to all of your freshman as well as returning players!

That's awesome!  

Couldn't help but wipe a way a tear reading the posts. Took my wife and 2015 (first born) to the airport this morning. He will be going to school/baseball in the Midwest (we live in California).  Thought I was ready for this ... but no. Ball since 5. Many evenings talking while doing soft toss in the backyard, The weekend travel baseball the hi's and low's little league, travel and high school and of course recruiting came flooding back. At least there is texting, skype and game streaming now. Also continue to  focus on 2016 son and his baseball future but still feel the void all parents feel when their child leaves home for the first time. 

There's another pill this suspiciously looks like.  Might provide temporary relief, as well.

New beginnings. So exciting. Congrats, buckeye.

I saw a poster online I can't find again. But here's the essence ...

 

Dear Freshman,

 

When you first arrive at the dorm with your parents don't be embarrassed when your mother makes your bed. Don't be bothered by your father scoping out the dorm and meeting everyone he can. You're not the only one entering a new phase in your life. Your's is more exciting. This will be harder on them than you.

Dropped our freshman son at his D3 yesterday.  Emotional day, mom and dad both exhausted at end of day.  We were lucky enough to run into the two assistant coaches while on the campus yesterday and they offered encouraging words to us so that did help.  Toughest part was walking into the house last night after the drive, it was completely quiet, no mess in the den from shoes, hats, gloves etc.

 

. . . .well, now you can look forward to those messes during holidays.  

I remember reading somewhere a long time ago: Don't go to crazy about the messes. You'll miss them someday.

 

I try to remember that on the rare occasions I go upstairs...

Our upstairs is clean. Our ice bin is full. 

 

But I have no one to play catch with. . 

 

I miss him!

I have 2 more weeks. I feel like I am marking of the days until execution day. I'm stressing over every little thing and my son is just walking around like he doesn't have a care in the world. I have 3 more at home to keep me busy but it won't be the same.

Good luck to all.

I have one more week. We'll all be going shopping tomorrow to finish his list (last day of Tax Free week here). He has been running all about the last few weeks (seeing friends before they leave for college). That means my car is in use more and less available for me. Kinda funny that he drove me and dropped me off at school (teacher) today.