What is it about college-aged kids? I realize that they are similar to what we use to call pre-teens. They are adults. Most are on their own in some small way, but they are still children.

My freshman daughter announced last Sunday, while watching her team play in a wild card game, that she was not going back to university. Not going to any college or university is an absolute no go so she must have been thinking this over for a while as she had decided to register for the local community college.

I guess I should have pushed for her to go back for one more semester. My logic in not doing so was two-fold. One was economics. It would be far less expensive for her to go to the community college – about half the cost without financial aid in the picture – than to go back to university. Of course, that is just tuition costs. I didn’t figure in the increase in my food budget or in gas costs as she will commute and we live about 15 miles from the college. I looked at raw costs – what she owed at the university she had already spent a semester at for spring semester would be a little over $3300 and the cost for the community college would be $1721.

The other factor in my decision is that it will be easier to help her look for a four year school if she is at home. She has already formed a list of them. The art classes she will take at the community college will help with her portfolio to get into a design program.

I guess hindsight will be 20/20 on this decision. Sometimes diapers and bottles do seem easier than teenagers.