How can you make a student happy? Drop them at university – and make a lightning-quick exit | Zoe Williams

The impulse is to hang around meeting their friends, and their friends’ parents, and checking out their room. Maybe you’ll all go to a restaurant in the evening ... But be aware: no teenager or twentysomething wants this I was driving my niece to university, and my son asked what time I’d be back, which was itself inherently sad. When they’re little and you’re leaving them with a babysitter and they ask in a plaintive tiny voice for your estimated time of return, and your heart is gripped in ...

By Zoe Williams