Here’s a trend I’ve never heard and I wouldn’t partake in as a parent. Extravagant “bed parties” for college acceptances.
I don’t know that any of my kids would have wanted all this school gear - we certainly wouldn’t have done it for many reasons.
Thoughts? Is there a happy middle? I’m guessing this in ADDITION to an extravagant grad party!!!
Uh NO!
Ranks right up there with elaborate promposals for me. Perhaps even worse. A hard no.
The title sent my mind in an entirely different direction. That’s a no from me, dawg.
I’m like, is that what they’re calling it now?
Heck no. It’s over priced, extravagant, and not our family’s thing. I think some people are into it for the Instagram/TikTok clicks. I’d rather spend our money on college tuition than a bunch of decorative stuff that’s mostly going to be thrown away or not used when it’s all said and done.
Just no.
I did a cheap version for photo op with d25. She bought the hoodie on a visit. I bought 2 tshirts. Got a free throw in school colors. The rest of the items were free swag from the school.
Utterly ridiculous. And we wonder why we are where we are today…
Graduating from HS and going to college were minimum requirements in this household. No entitlement parties.
I can see celebrating with a cake and some balloons maybe, but I don’t know how we got to thousands of dollars spent on a bedroom celebration.
As I believe I said in the previous Bed Party thread, it would mean my D would actually have to make her bed, so it would be a hard “NO” from her.
https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/t/bed-parties/3637674/17
I hope people spending thousands of dollars on a bed party aren’t complaining about the cost of college.
I don’t remember doing anything with the kids. We probably let them pick where we ate for dinner on the weekend and got a “I’m so proud of you. You’re going to have such a great time!”
But when younger S graduated, several of “us” parents gave them a party. Us in quotation marks because I think I donated the plates, drinks, and napkins. But one of the moms made each of the kids a small cake covered in icing flowers in the colors of their college. It’s a cute picture of them all sitting in front of their respective cakes.
Oh wow I wasn’t aware of this previous thread - or this trend! Some examples of people who did it to different levels on that thread.
Our D23 wouldn’t even let us put the school flag they sent to us for free in our yard after the decision was made.
I like this new trend you’ve suggested! 
(As a parent with a current college junior and HS senior, this will be a ways a way for us…)
There will definitely be no bed party at our house. Our “graduation party” is going to be a backyard BBQ for cousins, aunts and uncles and while it will be predominantly focused on finishing HS (as in, if we have balloons they will be his HS colors, not college colors), I may throw in some kind of table decoration or something for the College To Be.
This was a thing here for my oldest 2 daughters, but also very different. Friend groups (one was a group of 7, one 10) would go to the dollar store to get decorations in the school colors, balloons, maybe a tshirt with the college on it) and decorate the bedroom. It was fun, silly, and definitely inexpensive (they would ref-use decorations if possible). My 3rd daughter graduated HS in 2021, COVID ended some traditions like this.
For my youngest daughter (who didn’t have the bed thing) 10 of us moms held a brunch at someone’s home (we all brought food), and we gave them matching friendship bracelets. They’re graduating college this May and are still very very close (many have been friends since kindergarten).
Sounds like S’ group. They still get together in various places 2 years post college. A couple of weeks ago about 15 of them gathered at S’ city for his (and 2 others’) birthday. They also have mostly been friends since kindergarten (I’ve known a few since before they were born!), though they’ve picked up a few others along the way. A few now are from college. They are a tight bunch and never any drama with them. Just a bunch of goofy boys. Many of them I consider to be my adoptive sons.
