The Load is Light: The College Effect

I saw a comment on a friend's Facebook recently that I could totally relate to.  She wrote "The laundry is making me sad this morning".  Hey, it's not that either of us loves doing the laundry, folding it and putting it away.   What's making both of us melancholy is we have our oldest child away at college for the first time, and there are many things noticeably different.  Including a lighter laundry load.

For sure the laundry load is a TON smaller.  I used to have to do a load at least once a day, sometimes two loads a day.  With five people filling up the hamper, it's downright odoriferous in the laundry room.  But with my eldest in college, I'm amazed to realize how much she contributed to the family pile. 

In addition to the lighter laundry load, I've also noticed we don't use up milk quite as fast.  I used to purchase two gallons of milk a week and sometimes that wouldn't be enough.  But now the milk isn't consumed quite as quickly and there are fewer glasses to wash besides. 

When my husband is traveling on business, our family size dwindles from five to three, and it is just so quiet in the house.  It makes me appreciate having our golden retriever even more during those times. 

And like that lighter load of laundry, the load of responsibility on my shoulders as a parent is lightening up a bit as well.  Once a child goes to college, they are making decisions all day without my interference but hopefully with my parental influence.  Skype and cell phones keep us in touch to stay connected.  But that doesn't make up for the changes at home, the lighter loads, the milk that lasts longer and the empty bedroom.  But when they come home that changes and the load and the laughter fill the house once again.