When I went to college in the 80’s at a small LAC in New England, where most of us students had “free-range childhoods”, so-to-speak, my college had an elaborate orientation program that included lots of activities for parents. I can’t remember exactly - but it must have included parents in some activities for at least two days. Move in, Convocation, other stuff, Chapel Services, etc.
Some schools still do this, I imagine. I think the tradition and ritual were pretty cool back then. My mother cried when we said goodbye after the chapel service on that Sunday. I, on the other hand, couldn’t wait to be free and on my own - I didn’t shed a tear. My mother passed away about a year and a few months later when I was a sophomore in College. I mourned her death with grief and tears at the time. Well…30+ years later, I was reading the Fall edition of the college alumni magazine showing a photo of “bittersweet goodbyes during orientation” that I was stuck with a new grief - I wept, openly, on a NYC subway, for NOT having wept with my mom on the day my parents drove off during orientation. Odd eh?