Hosting Parents

In addition to hosting international students in our home we also have the opportunity to host parents who travel with their child to Foxcroft Academy. These parents stay a day or two, or three before saying good-bye to their child for the school term. (In the picture (Mengli Luo, Hoi Young, Hoi Young’s dad and Seulki)

It is always a little bit humorous watching who has a harder time saying “good-bye”, the student or the parent. After raising seven children of our own, I can say with some deal of assurance that it is always the parent who has the harder time saying “good-bye.” That was certainly the case with the most recent family which came with their daughter (Hoi Young) from South Korea.

At what appeard to be the end of the parent’s stay Hoi Young headed to class and said her good-bye’s only to find that her mother wanted to “sit in” on a few of her classes before she headed back overseas. If you could have seen Hoi Young’s face when the mother walked into her second period class – like – “why are you still here, mom!” Of course it was all very respectful, but also clear that Hoi Young was ready to begin this new chapter in her life, but the parents were having a harder time “letting go.” (In the picture Hoi Young with her mom and dad)

As a reult, some of the time Dottie and I spend with parents is reassuring them that “everythings going to be O.K.” and we will take good care of their son or daughter. There are often 2-3 days of hand holding, not with the child, but with the parents.