"Why Is Everything So Much More Stressful When Dad's Involved?"

In helping Meg search for internships recently I had been checking her emails with her daily.  In doing so I realized that one that she received from IU provided information for her as a graduating senior.   I had also noticed this summer that her college loan information had her graduating in December of 2022 instead of May 2023 as she had planned.  Since Meg was just a junior, I decided to do some research for her and find out what her projected graduation should be. 

After looking more into it, I found that as an accounting major Meg could actually graduate when she had 120 credits.  Most accounting undergrads waited until they had 150 credit hours, however, so that they can sit for the CPA.  Meg already had earned 102 credits thus far thanks to the extra classes that she took online during the coronavirus pandemic.  Thus, Meg had some options - graduate a year early without having an internship and with only 120 hours, graduate a semester early with an internship and 150 hours, or add a major and graduate in May of 2023.  

I thought the best plan of action was to call Meg tonight and explain this to her.  Nick had plans to graduate in December 2022 and I thought that maybe they wanted to discuss her options as well.  Doug decided that he would listen in on speaker as she and I talked so that he would also be a part of the discussion.  Before I talked to Meg about her graduation plans, I let her know that Doug was on the line as well.  She instantly started bawling as soon as I talked about graduating early.  She didn't even hear me bring up any other options.  She had felt that her college life had already been cut short with the time at home during lockdown and the online class structure of last year.  She felt like she had just started to feel like she was in college this semester and didn't want to give that up so soon.  

Once she calmed down I talked to her about the option of meeting with her advisor, adding the business law and ethic majors to her transcript like she had talked about and staying until May of 2023.  She definitely liked that option the best, but wanted to talk to Nick first.  She called back a little later to let me know that they liked that advice best and she had already scheduled an appointment with her advisor for Tuesday.  She also wanted me to know that she only cried because Dad was on the phone.  She said "Why is Everything So Much More Stressful When Dad's Involved?"  

Cameron laughed when he heard her say that.  I realized from Cam's reaction and Meg's statement that she was probably right.  Cal had even texted me tonight so that I could tell Doug to stop using his Spotify account as he needed it for the drive to Indy.  He thought that Dad would listen better to me.  He was correct and I solved the problem immediately.  Doug laughed when I told him that all of this was actually  my fault.  I had used him as the "heavy" so much over the years that the Heinisch children were always nervous when he was involved.  He said, "If it makes them more successful in life, I don't mind being the bad guy."  So glad that he feels that way.