Hi neighbors. It is already near the end of July and it won't be long before school starts again.

If you have a son or daughter going off to college, here are some tips for dealing with that anxiety and how to have your son or daughter remain on speaking terms with you.

Every time it snows don't call to make sure he got home safe. Don't call every morning to make certain he woke up in time for class.

The first time he tells you his car broke down in the middle of six lanes of traffic and he had to push it home...just be glad he had the strength (or small enough car) to do it. Do not keep picturing in your mind all the cars that might have run over him, into him or passed him by without stopping to help.

Of course you will immediately head out to either fix the car, get him another one, or give him money to fix the one that's broken. Don't panic! It's just a car that doesn't run -- and there are busses and cabs and shanks horses and friends he can hitch rides with.

Of course, after you stop worrying about it, you'll get upset because he didn't call you sooner (or not at all and you found out about it when you called him a week after it had happened.) Here's a tip -- set a definite time and day for him to call home or for you to call him. Stick to it even if you want to call three times a day to make sure he's really, really all right.

After a few months, he'll start calling home more often on his own...just because he wants to hear your voice and know someone in the big, cold world still loves him.

Buy him phone cards or get him a cell phone. Send him food -- often -- whether he asks for it or not. Before he leaves, let him cook a couple of meals at home if he hasn't done that before.

Don't just "drop in" for a visit. He will have a new schedule with few free minutes and he will appreciate a visit when he can actually have time to chat. (Or to have you take him out for food.) When packing remember to send him off with lots of towels and washcloths and underwear because he will only do laundry once a week no matter if he runs out of "clean" things to wear or not. Send laundry soap and quarters. Do NOT send regular chlorine bleach unless he really likes jeans with holes and polk-a-dot towels.

Send an alarm clock, and a can opener and a paring knife.

Only send dishes and cooking utensils that work in a microwave and that you won't care about having stolen, burnt, or thrown away when they get dirty and the dishwasher doesn't work. Or is too full to put anything else into and he doesn't have dishwashing soap and he discovered the last time this happened that regular dishwashing liquid does NOT work.

Send a drainer for all that macaroni and cheese, spaghetti and Chinese noodles he'll be cooking.

He will most need trash bags, laundry soap, dishwasher soap, shaving accessories, deodorant, toothpaste and all the usual things he'll never think of buying when shopping.

Remember, he usually never got out of the electronics or clothing sections before.

Let him vent about how rotten his room mate(s) are without comment because he will like them again tomorrow. Don't nag -- he's a big boy and he will survive college.

If he calls twice in one week he needs money or he's worried about something or he has a new girlfriend he wants to mention but is hesitant introduce to the family and make things "complicated." If he calls three times in a week he wants to quit college and come back home. Suggest he hold on till the end of the semester by which time he'll be ready to keep at it anyway.

The most difficult part of your child going away to college is fighting the recurring feeling that "something is wrong" which is just the parenting instinct that kicks in any time your child is out of sight for more than two hours. After all, you've been checking on them since they were old enough to crawl out of reach remember.

But, if you wake up at 2 a.m. and think something is terribly wrong and you just HAVE to call -- go ahead and call -- he's probably still awake anyway.