Keeping in touch!

Hi everyone

Well as promised here are some of the ways we have stayed in touch with our daughter since she left home and went to Uni! I have to say that it was so hard not to want to pin her down and put a GPS tracking device under her skin when she first left, so I would always know that she was home safe and sound! (Apparently this isn't good parenting so I resisted! ) Anyway as you would imagine the first couple of weeks were rather hard. Knowing she would be going into the city centre with a group of students she had only just met and wouldn't be home until the early hours....Ahh stress! 

So apart from the usual phone, FaceTime and Facebook, an app called 'Snapchat' has turned out to be one of our favourites! It's exactly what it sounds! You get to send a photo, with a line of text, that your chosen recipient(s) can view for anything up to 10 seconds, just a quick snapshot of their day (or night!). I wasn't sure at first but I now love it as my daughter is great at sending 'Snapchats' of her uni life... so a trip to Asda or her curled up in bed working, or a selfie with all her friends happy and having fun.! This constant stream of reassuring photos is a perfect way to know what your uni student is up to without the need for them to spend hour's skyping or calling. And when they do call you have lots to talk about! We use it to send her 'Snaps' of home life too, that way when she comes home to visit she isn't hit by loads of changes that she knew nothing about....so a quick Snapchat of the dogs new bed or a present bought for a friend or what you had for breakfast! Anything to keep lines of communication open!

So if I can offer any advice about keeping in touch it would be to ask your child what apps they use to communicate with their friends, as they are more likely to use these to communicate with you too. Don't expect them to always call you because they might not! Make an effort to keep in touch but don't smoother them, they are busy making new friends and if you're lucky they might bring their new friends home to visit! But more about that soon!

Speak soon

Julie