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# Thanksgiving Break: The Perfect Time to Set Up Your College Student’s Power of Attorney
- URL: https://blog.mamabearlegalforms.com/thanksgiving-break-the-perfect-time-to-set-up-your-college-students-power-of-attorney/
- Published: 2025-11-18T18:38:26.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-20T20:41:24.000Z
- Author: Kelly Loneman

When college students come home for Thanksgiving, the house comes back to life: full of familiar voices, new stories, overflowing laundry baskets, and reminders that time moves fast. Between leftovers, movie nights, and catching up, this short visit also offers a quiet opportunity to take care of something that may have been overlooked during the back-to-school rush.

If your student headed off to school without a health care power of attorney, HIPAA release, financial power of attorney, or FERPA release, Thanksgiving break is an ideal moment to take care of those documents.

**Why Thanksgiving Works So Well**

August is chaos: move-in days, Target runs, forgotten chargers, and last-minute everything. Even the most organized families often push the “paperwork stuff” off until later.

Thanksgiving is different:

**Your student is home and relaxed.** There’s no frantic packing or last-minute errands. Just a familiar bed, good food, and a slower pace.

**You know their new routine now.** After a few months away, you have a clearer sense of their life, what they’re juggling, where they spend their time, and the challenges or and what risks that come with their new independence.

**Families naturally talk logistics during this break**.Holiday plans, winter travel, spring classes, it all comes up. Adding a short conversation about emergency documents fits right into the mix.

**Winter flu season is starting**. If something unexpected happened or your student were hospitalized and you didn’t have a health-care POA or HIPAA release, getting vital information from the hospital could be difficult .

**The Reality Most Parents Don’t Know**

Once your child turns 18, you lose automatic access to things you’ve managed their whole life. Without the right documents:

- Hospitals don’t have to speak with you.
- Doctors cannot share medical updates.
- You can’t make or help with health-care decisions.
- Banks won’t let you manage accounts during emergencies.
- Schools can't discuss grades, conduct issues, or academic concerns.

A small set of legal forms prevents all of this and ensures you can help when it matters most.

**The “Thanksgiving Break Plan” (Simple, Quick and Easy)**

If you’d like to take care of this while your student is home, here’s an easy approach:  
**1\. Keep the explanation simple.** Something like: “These forms just make sure we can help you if there’s ever an emergency, nothing more”  
**2\. Complete the documents together.** With Mama Bear, it only take a few minutes.  
**3\. Store copies where you can easily access them.** The Mama Bear App provides the perfect place to store a copy so you can access everything immediately if needed.

**Peace of Mind Before They Head Back**...Don't let this crucial, 10-minute opportunity slip away. Before they leave for the airport or hit the road, ensure you have the legal right to help in an emergency.

**Click here to get your College Power of Attorney package:** [**mamabearlegalforms.com/youngadult**](https://mamabearlegalforms.com/youngadult?ref=blog.mamabearlegalforms.com)