Our son thought that when he went to college, he was going to have the same comforts that he had at home.
He and three other guys were sharing a dorm room.
They had two sets of bunk beds, and small desks at the end of each bunk bed so the kids had their own studying space. There was a small closet and a small dresser for each guy. There were two bathrooms that were shared by their hallway. His next question was about the thermostat. He wanted to know how he was going to control the heat and air conditioning in the dorm room. My husband chuckled and told him that the hall monitor probably had access to the thermostat. Not every room had its own thermostat. Our son was devastated. He thought it was a right to have his own thermostat, and he planned on protesting. II told him that when he became a senior, he would be able to have his own dorm room, or he would be living off campus. Up until that point, he had to accept that living in the dorm was not the same as living at home, and he wouldn’t have quality heat like he had at home. I thought our son was going to be the only one to whine about the lack of thermostats but as his roommate arrived, I found I was wrong. Each one thought they should have a thermostat to control their own comfort. As parents, we all chuckled at the naivete of our children, and how they were going to do a lot of growing up over the next year. Hopefully they would learn to appreciate what they have at home.