So you’re sending your son away to dorm, finally, but it didn’t occur to you that you’re going to have to change your school supplies list from things like 72 pencils, 5 different color folders, and that pre-hardened glue that the stores are selling as “glue stick”.  So here’s a list that might be helpful, depending on how you define the word “helpful”.   

As an observer of human behavior – but not in a creepy way – I firmly believe that the best way to solve a lot of sholom bayis problems is to point out that it’s not just your own personal spouse who’s like that. A lot of times it turns out that that’s just how people of that gender are.  They’re not doing this behavior to annoy you – they’re just hard-wired that way.  And getting upset at them is like getting upset at a dog for not buying you flowers on your birthday. Sure, you can spend years training the dog to do it, but A: He definitely won’t do it if you don’t train him, and B: Even if you do train him, he’s still going to think that all the other dogs are going to look at him weird.