The Dreaded Goodbye

Whether you say goodbye to your new university student here in Residence, or at home, you've anticipated this moment and perhaps dreaded it for months, if not years. For years here at Lakehead we have witnessed so much - arrival day for students with their parents in tow (or vice versa). Families wandering around campus looking confused and concerned while new students try to distance themselves from their parents and younger brothers and sisters. Then it's parents standing around empty boxes while their child sets to embark on a life changing journey.

What you can do to help

  • Make sure you have your and long tearful goodbye before you leave for school
  • Take advantage of our parents and friends information session on campus
  • When it is time to leave campus and return home, make a quick and preferably tearless exit
  • Tour Thunder Bay and the area with the rest of your family

What may not help

  • A long drawn out goodbye
  • Coming back to campus after you've left will just make your student and possibly yourself upset

As you think about life back at home without your child, you may have many feelings. You may be sad, relieved that you have done a good job thus far in preparing them for the next chapter, or joyfulness that you may have more free time to do the things you've always wanted to do. What's even more confusing is that you may have all of these feelings and more and they may not be the same as those of your significant other. Regardless of how you feel, your life at home will certainly be different.

What you can do to help

  • Speak to your significant other about what feelings they might have
  • Try to listen, without judgment, to your partner's feelings, even though yours may differ
  • Realize that change, even though it's essentially positive, can leave you with feelings of loss

What may not help

  • Accusing your spouse of being unfeeling or too emotional
  • Telling your student about your sad feelings of them being away at school