<p>My D just graduated from hs but we did not have a grad party. We’ve been invited to several graduation parties of our D’s classmates because we are friends with the parents, although our children are not friends. We’ve given gifts to several of D’s friends, but it feels strange to give a larger cash gift to the child of adult friends. How much is appropriate? In years when we have not had a child graduate, we have given between $60 and $100 to the children of adult friends. We will often give more, or give a personal gift, to the graduates who we know personally.</p>
<p>I normally give more to my friends’ kids than to my kid’s friends. Many of my friends’ kids I have known since they were toddlers.</p>
<p>Guess it may depend on where you live and your social circle, but to me that seems excessive. We live in a large midwestern city, our kids go to a private independent high school. Here is what we have done:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>If D is going without parents, we give $10. We got a big box (50) of Congratulations! cards when she started going to parties, haven’t used it up yet. I usually do provide the $10 for her to take.</p></li>
<li><p>If I am invited too, we typically give $25, except in BFF between the whole family situations, where we upped it to $50. If I were invited without D (which actually hasn’t happened), I would stick with the $25 amount.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>We are also in the midwest, and my parents give more to their friends kids than to my friends. My friends got $25-$50 because I usually had to pay it myself. If my parents know the family, they give me $75-$100 to bring. Around here I don’t think anybody bothers to write a check for less than $20, at that point you get a picture frame or something nice but inexpensive like that instead.</p>
<p>None of ds’s friends exchanged gifts. I sent $25 to the son of a good friend; she had sent my ds a $25 gift card.</p>
<p>For those of you who are worried about breaking the bank, an idea I picked up last year on cc was to give a check in the amount of the graduation year – in this case, $20.10! I thought that cleverness made up for the not-giant check. :)</p>
<p>We don’t have grad. parties here except the impromptu kinds the kids plan.
We only send gifts/money to the ones who send us announcements/invitations.
For family members we send $50 and for neighbor kids we do $20 or $25.</p>
<p>This year I bought a neighbor girl (that I’ve known since birth) a pewter cuff bracelet and had her initials engraved on it instead of the usual money in a card. It cost less than $25. She really loved it and sent a note that said it was the most thoughtful grad. gift anyone had given her. I wanted her to have something she would keep for a long time.
So it’s not always the $$$ amt. that makes the biggest impression.</p>
<p>I make the amount fun - $20.10 for the 2010 graduate. Lots of positive comments from graduates and the parents when they notice. Not an original idea, I first saw it on CC.</p>