People do that, by the way. So their DS or DD (!) won’t get homesick, apparently. One parent even shared an image of an “In Case You Need This” box on the chat last week. It was a decorated shoe box containing little messages. “In case you’re getting poorly”: one envelope read. Inside was some paracetamol and some throat lozenges. Another read, “In case you’re feeling tired”: and inside were ear plugs, an eye mask and a sachet of Sleepy Time Tea. Bloody ridiculous. Scott would put money on the crazy lady next door, with the petite frame and the feisty eyes, spending hours assembling such a box for Georgia.
Scott came to university alone with a rucksack on his back and nothing more. Surely, all this fussing is not only unnecessary, but also unhealthy? As an actuary, it is his job to assess and mitigate risk. Experience tells him that people need to make their own mistakes in life, if they’re to learn for themselves. The way you show a young person you love them, in Scott’s book, is to let them loose. Of course, support them on their way, but this helicopter parenting is not, in his opinion, good for anyone. It leaves young people with no internal risk filters of their own. Developing resilience, Scott knows for sure, is what Brianna needs in life right now.
Brianna turns her back on him and begins putting shirts onto coat hangers, an essential which, thankfully, she’d remembered to pack. There’s no way Scott would have thought of coat hangers, and he really doesn’t fancy a trip into town to shop.
‘Well, maybe something would’ve been nice.’
Brianna’s voice is small and childlike and her blue eyes, so like his own, take on a glassy appearance. An alarm bell goes off in Scott’s head. Has he pitched this wrong? His strong, independent, competent daughter, who chose a university three hundred miles from home, is wobbling?
‘Hey, love, you don’t need all that stuff, do you?’
Brianna sniffs, something her mother only did when upset or triggered by an intolerance. ‘Nah, you’re right. I’m okay.’
‘Well, remember, I’m staying in town tonight. So, we’ll meet for breakfast tomorrow and if there’s anything you need, we can get it then. I’ll have a few hours before I need to get the bus to the airport.’
‘You could do one thing for me,’ Brianna says, with a look in her eye that Scott knows means a cheeky request is coming his way.
‘What’s that?’
‘You could leave the key.’
Brianna nods towards the key to his MG on her work bench.
Scott scoops it up, places it into the pocket of his leather jacket and zips it up.
‘No way, José,’ he says.
Brianna’s eyes lose their glimmer, and her hands move to her hips.
‘Dad, you’re being ridiculous. You can’t say I’m old enough to make decisions about things, then ban me from driving.’
This old thing. He rolls his eyes.
‘You know the deal, Brianna, and you know why. No driving until you’re twenty-one. Everything else you’re trusted with and is on the table. Driving is most definitely off it.’
Brianna purses her lips. She knows defeat when she sees it.
FRESHMAN PARENTS' ONLINE FORUM: ST ANDREWS UNIVERSITY
Alert! Alert! Daughter just shared this image. Definitely a cockroach. Get your YP to check under their beds.
OMG! Which hall?
Rob Roy.
My DS is in RR. Where do they need to look?
Under beds. In Plug holes.
