Enright said it hit her hard when her first child, Will, left for college. "The first one out of the nest leaves a1in your family," she said. "At your next family dinner, there's a big space 2. "
She remembers her own college days and her mother's wanting not to run up the 3.
"She used to say ‘just write a letter. '"
Enright 4 phone calls and suggests that when the kids phone home, "give them time to 5. "
Parents shouldn't feel 6 if, on movein day, their children ask them to go away once they've put things 7 in their dormitory, Enright said. "As soon as the 8 thing was done, I could see in their eyes that I was no longer 9 here," she said.
For many parents, college means the first time they don't know their children's 10. When Enright and her husband 11 the college, they got to know their children's new friends by 12 them to join the family for a picnic.
Enright said that, 13 they were busy in college, her four children understood what their 14 meant on the home front.
One of them told her, "You know, Mom, it's kind of sad. Our family is 15going to live together. "
But the sadness is balanced by something 16.
"Everyone of them just loves the time we all have together. Our kids 17 being together," Enright said.
"I believe in the 18 that there're two important gifts we give our children — roots and wings," she said. "When we've 19 our jobs with the roots, we give them wings to go off and try it on their own."
The right 20of roots and wings makes a parent proud.
