Life can be hard when your son or daughter drives off to college for the first time to stay on campus.  Whether they live fifty miles away or across the seas, missing someone can truly hurt.  While keeping in contact can help ease the pain, it’s not going to solve all of your sadness.  Here are a few ways you can keep in contact with your child in order to ease the pain a little bit.

Set up an IM - If you’re computer savvy, that’s great!  If not, you might need to learn a few things.  Simply set up a IM aka instant messaging account from three of the main websites.  Keep in mind that it’s completely free.  Three of the sites you can check out are AIM, YIM, or MSN.  From there, read the instructions on how to set up an account and how to chat with another user.  All of these platforms vary.

E-mail - Once again, if you’re computer savvy, great!  An e-mail is an easy way to drop a line to your child at college.  This is probably one of the more convenient ways to keep in contact considering you can answer the e-mail at any times.  With an IM, you are enacting in a real life situation, so you’ll have to response right there and then.

Text messaging - Cell phones in today’s world are amazing.  You can do everything from watching TV to doing what’s it meant to do which is text.  With text messaging, it’s just like e-mail but with your phone.  A simple text back and forth is easier than talking on the phone.  Text messaging is a lot more convenient than calling because you can answer at your convenience.

A phone call - A phone call won’t hurt you every now and again.  Make sure that you know your child’s schedule, so that you don’t call during class.  Most of the times, I would wait for your child to initiate contact so that you don’t bug them during study hour, etc. 

Snail mail - Just because we have all of this technology, it doesn’t mean we can’t use the good old postal service.  The postal service is a great way to send care packages.  You can send everything from a simple letter to a bunch of goodies like pictures, shirts, gifts, etc.  Use your imagination with this one!

Sending your child off to college for the first time can be tough but like anything, you’ll soon get used to it.  It’s a time for your child to mature and get an education.  It’s something that you want them to do and when they come back home, they will hopefully be out on their own working in the work force.  Families can’t be together 24/7 but keeping in contact can happen on occasion!  Try your best to keep in contact and it will only help you in the long haul.