Same with my daughter in respiratory therapy in May and already landed a great job at her first choice of jobs for a big company Northwell at a very nice starting salary with great benefits. She is ecstatic and so are we.
The best part for us now is she is about to be off the "payroll" in 2 months. I told her now that she has a good job after 3 months she needs to assume her car, insurance and cell phone bills like any productive person. She can of course stay home as long as she wants with free room and board but we paid for every penny of her schooling and got her a great car so she has absolutely no debt and starting with a good salary so she should start covering some of her expenses and still max her savings at the same time.
Your daughter is now an adult with a good education in a career, no college loans, a good paying job and a great car. It is a wonderful feeling for a parent to know that their financial support and encouragement has played a part in setting their now adult child up for a comfortable life. That she was hired by the company that was her first choice indicates she was very likely motivated to do well in school.
Some people are able to achieve their goals without any financial help or the support of their parents but that is a hard row to hoe and who wants that for their child? My father was finally diagnosed with MS when I was 11 and my mother died of cancer when I was 14. My father's finances were quite limited and I knew how much he wished he could do more for my sister and I. My MIL could have helped her kids when they had young families and really needed the help but chose not to do that. When she passed her children were 51-66 and while the money she left was nice it is hard to feel the love when you get the money because your mother died not because she wanted you to have it when you needed it most. My husband and his siblings found out much to their surprise after she died that she may have been widowed while the two youngest were still at home but she certainly wasn't poor like she led them to believe. I had told them years before that someday they would be quite surprised to find how much she was worth. They asked what I thought she was worth and I told them. Not a single one of them believed me but when the time came that estimate was pretty accurate. When her estate was being settled my husband's next oldest brother's wife asked how I knew. Duh a woman who in 1980 spends $500 on a tailor made ultra suede suit for herself isn't poor! And if she needed anything done around her house; she had 4 sons and a SIL for free labor. I truly enjoyed my MIL's company, we traveled together to visit my husband's two brothers who moved away and I knew her better than her own kids. She was a great friend but not the type of mother I ever wanted to be. In the earlier years of our marriage she lent us, or more accurately lent me because I handled all our finances, money interest free three different times for major home improvement projects and a car but only on the condition we didn't tell my husband's siblings. Her reasons were that I always paid her back within a year, was never late nor missed paying her each month and never expected her to just write it off. It may not sound like much but coming from her that was a big deal and yes I was her favorite DIL. Not everyone feels the same way about parenting. I love knowing that we are there for our adult son and have been able to do for him.
You know your daughter's spending habits and how likely she would be to over indulge herself in those three months. You also know how much she knows about budgeting and being self supporting. Having her at home gives you the opportunity to advise her about those things before she does go out on her own. It sounds like you have no worries with her. However for some people it would be better to have them assume all their own bills and pay nominal room and board starting with the first paycheck as three months is enough time to set some bad spending habits and unrealistic standard of living expectations.
For the first couple of years they were married my SIL and her ex-husband lived in the upstairs flat of his parents house and paid them a fair but still quite reasonable rent. When they were buying their own place they found out that his mother had been putting their rent money into an account for them to put towards the down payment. My SIL has no flair for decorating so was thrilled when her MIL would show up with things like new curtains for the kitchen after they moved into their own house. When their daughter was born his mother set up a crib at her house and would take their daughter overnight just about every weekend even though her husband had passed unexpectedly the previous year, she worked full time Monday through Friday and still had the ex-BIL's older brother and younger sister living at home. My SIL and I had babies six days apart and I would have been jealous but my MIL was fine with letting the MIL step in and be more of a mother to her daughter than she was. Seeing the difference in the two women taught me a great deal about the mother, MIL and grandmother I wanted to be. A few years later my SIL's MIL had a major stroke that she never recovered from but lived for several years not being able to speak and almost completely incapacitated. Mary T. may you rest in peace. You are remembered with a great deal of love by your family and with respect from those who knew you.
