I remember my first semester of my freshman year of college. I was so homesick! I went home every Friday as soon as my last class was over and dreaded leaving home every Sunday evening to head back to school. I called home some weeks in the middle of the week crying because I was so homesick. It was a hard adjustment! Now that I have a college student, I have relived some of those emotions as she started college. I have found several ways to comfort my homesick college student and for me to stay connected to her so I am also not homesick for her.

Encourage Your College Student to Get Connected

Encouraging your child to get connected in college is the best way to cure homesickness. Starting out, your child may have nothing in common with their roommate and may not know anyone in any of their classes. This is hard when they have come from high school where they were surrounded by their group of friends and had a built-in support group. College is a real culture shock. I remembered this from my college experience and pushed my daughter to find ways to get connected early in the semester. Colleges have an enormous amount of ways for a student to get connected and find their group, but the student does have to seek out those groups and try them out. Encourage them to find clubs that relate to things they are interested in, join a sorority or fraternity, find a study group or join a Bible study. The options are endless. Once they find a group and get connected, you may be the only one homesick…at least until they are swamped with homework or mid-terms come along!

Send Your Child Care Packages

Don’t we all enjoy receiving an unexpected gift in the mail? Care packages are great for homesick college students as they show the student that the person who sent them the package took time to select the contents. As Moms, we love to do things for our children and once they leave for college we don’t have as many opportunities to care for them as we did when they were living in the home. Items you can include in care packages are your child’s favorite snacks, homemade goodies, gift cards to a favorite restaurant or coffee shop, school supplies or dorm supplies, really anything that makes your child feel special. If they are really missing home, you could also send something from home, like their favorite blanket, pillow or stuffed animal.

Text Your College Student

Texting randomly throughout the week has been one of the ways my daughter and I have stayed connected and helped with the homesickness that comes with leaving for college. Her first year she loved to get pictures or video texts of our pets.  In fact, she would specifically request this some weeks. When I knew she was having a particularly stressful week, I would text her a positive quote, Bible verse, or link to a daily devotional to help her put things in perspective. And sometimes simply sending a text asking them how their day is going is all they need. These texts show your homesick college student that you are thinking of them and opens the conversation for them to reply if they need more conversation and comfort from you.

Call or Video Chat Your Child

When my daughter left for college her freshman year, I told her that she could call as often as she wanted, but she had to call at least once a week.  This was more for me than for her at first. However, as the excitement and newness of college wore off and the stress of college set in, calling to chat was good for both of us. In fact, several of the “how is your day going” texts would turn into her calling me to chat. I noticed if things were going well, I might get a short text back or maybe no reply at all. But if things were stressful, that text would be returned by her with a call. Your kids do want the comfort of your voice when things are hard. If you find that your child needs a little motivation to call weekly, you could make things a little more interesting. If you and your child like the same shows, you could decide to call a day or two after you both have watched an episode and discuss what happened on the show. If you and your child like reading, you could read a set amount every week and set a time to video chat to discuss those chapters; have your own mini book club. You could also have virtual coffee dates or lunch dates with your child. Be creative to make it fun, and your child may be more likely keep calling even after their homesickness or stress subsides.

Visit Your College Student

When all other options have been tried, sometimes your homesick college student just needs to see you. So, take this opportunity to go for a visit or meet them in a city that is halfway between home and school. Take them for lunch, out for a movie, shopping, a sporting event or just make a whole weekend of it. Nothing replaces being together in person for the best type of comforting and curing homesickness.

With all the options today’s technology brings us, there are so many more ways to communicate with each other than when I was in college. So, take advantage of the technology become comfortable using it. That means if they love to video chat instead of calling learn to video chat. If they like snapping over texting, get a snapchat account. Do whatever it takes to keep that communication open to help your child with their homesickness and it’s good for mom’s soul too!

How do you comfort your college student when they get homesick?

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