<p>Hey, Kdog, given that I had already sent my daughter by herself on an overseas flight to Oxford for her interviews, had let her cross the country by herself to go to different summer camps in years gone past, and had let her travel for years to metropolitan areas without adult supervision, I don’t think she had the feeling at all that we were attending Bulldog Days to micromanage her decision.</p>
<p>Maybe the trip to BDD is among the first independent trips for some students, but that is not the case for all.</p>
<p>The stated BDD activities made it clear that there were activities for both parents and students, and my husband and I attended because we were providing transportation anyway and thought it would be fun to stay ourselves and attend the various tours and sessions and get a better sense of the school. (And we did find it to be time well spent.)</p>
<p>As long as parents don’t spoil the time for their children by insisting upon doing activities together, I see no problem with parental attendance. There were certainly many parents in attendance at the one big evening event, and when the students were dismissed from the theater that night, there was a talk and reception for the parents, which was fairly well attended.</p>
<p>We didn’t insist at all that my daughter attend BDD, but she wanted to. When I recommended that parents attend BDD, I didn’t mean that they should do so even if it meant forcing their child to attend. You seem to have inferred this from my post.</p>