Once your student is heading for college graduation, do you attend any of the “senior year” functions where parents are invited? We just received two invitations from son’s university. One dinner would cost my husband and I $65 each plus parking fees. There’s another dinner at another date which I think is free.
I admit it. The idea of,attending kind of bores me. These kinds of functions seem sort of impersonal to me plus I’m not happy with the expense. The university is an hour away, so that’s not really an issue as we make the drive often. Our son has done great at school and were very proud of him. Just not sure about these banquet type deals.
I attend our kids’ sorority charity events and I go up for their dance recitals. I usually ask if it’s important to them and if they want me there. In two weekends I will be driving 3 hours for a 2 hour gala event, but I am also making it a girls’ weekend.
I remember when I was a senior in college I got an invitation to the science honor society dinner which included my parents. They had no plans to go until they were called by one of my professors that day to tell them I was getting a scholarship award at the dinner - so of course they attended (the award was a surprise I had no idea I was getting it).
Talk to your son and see what he wants. We ended up going to a parent’s dinner the night before and while the food was not worth the money we had a wonderful night – watching the smile and pride on our son’s face all night as he danced and celebrated with friends at the dinner the night before graduation was priceless (as the MasterCard commercial might say) and he and his suite-mates reserved a table together and it was nice to have a chance sit and talk to the other parents (who we had previously only said a quick hello to on and move out days) after our sons lived together for two years.
I don’t recall an invitations around older D’s graduation. We went to a lot of the events graduation weekend with her, individual school graduation, Phi Beta Kappa ceremony, large graduation, and department receptions.
My S probably won’t attend his graduation this May, and I’m sure he would not want us to go to any dinners if he decided to attend after all. He’s been working since August fulfilling his co-op requirement and graduation is just a formality at this point.
If there are dinners for my youngest D’s graduation, we will attend if they coincide with the graduation weekend or another time we are there because it is too far to travel otherwise. But she is at an LAC and there is more of a warm family feel than the larger schools of the older 2.