HS Graduation Gifts

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Help me out on graduation gifting, please:</p>

<p>S is graduating HS and has been invited to some parties being given for some of his fellow classmates by their parents.</p>

<p>When he goes to party for a friend/fellow classmate, does S need to bring a gift for the friend/classmate? Should his friend/classmate give S a gift, even thought S is not having a party? Is the gift because someone is having a party or because someone is graduating?</p>

<p>Another party is being thrown jointly by the parents of 4 of his fellow classmates. S is only friends with one of them and presumably this is why he was invited (if the party were only for the other 3, we are confident S would not have been invited). Does S need to gift all four of the classmates for whom the party is being thrown, only his friend, or not even his friend because S is also graduating?</p>

<p>Many thanks.</p>

2

<p>What is your budget? I wouldn’t have my kid give gifts to friends who are having open-house type parties. Where I live, kids usually don’t give graduation gifts to members of their own class.<br>
As an adult, I give gifts to my own kids, my close relatives (nieces, nephews, some close cousins), perhaps to the child of a very close friend/neighbor/co-worker. But not ALL of my kids’ friends. If my child had a “best friend” who was like a family member–that would be an exception. I give cash for graduations. I figure that is what everyone wants most–and I hate shopping or worrying about what they might already have or be getting from others.
If you feel your kid must take something, just get a bunch of gift cards to a popular store or restaurant and tuck them into graduation cards, have them ready to pass out to all the graduates/hosts.</p>