Haha I would be happy if they get hired, best present ever!
Yes there is really a custom to give your parents your first paycheck.
My brother bought my parents an ipad with his first earnings and when he met with our grandmother gave her some money to help her meet her expenses. She didn’t want to take it but my brother felt it was the only chance he had to do something for her since she lived abroad. It is just a symbol of respect for everything your parents have done for you. My parents wouldn’t take money or help from their children so for this reason my brother gave him a gift that my father wouldn’t have bought for himself but would use. He takes it everywhere with him and uses it to take pictures and videos on trips or to record family memories or videos of the grandchildren. The gift(ipad) is something very special for him since his son bought it for him. My dad is an 82 year old physician who loves to give to others but won’t accept anything for himself. My brother really had to convince him to accept it.
http://www.mylot.com/post/2201127/what-is-the-importance-of-giving-first-salary-to-your-parents
That’s so sweet, @raclut!
My graduation gift after kids graduated from college? I retired!
H retired after the kids graduated too, plus we paid off the mortgage. Life is good!
Their graduation IS the gift imo.
If my dd graduates on time and finds work that she is truly interested in then I’m happy.
I only have one so I want her to work hard but have fun too.
I don’t need money or gifts. Just show me you respect and care for me.
It has just been the two of us for a longtime.
Just make a little time for me once in awhile and that would be the best gift.
Yes keeping in touch and getting together from time to time is a great gift! 
H and I have been giving ourselves a graduation gift every year since our last graduated 4 years ago. We figured we spent X thousands of dollars every year for college, so we can spend that on us now. We travel somewhere warm in the long hard NE winter and somewhere we want to visit in the summer. And we do several 3-4 weekend trips in between.
We have always been saving for retirement, even during college paying years. So we are not being reckless. Just having a great few years after college payments and before retirement!
We go on a number of trips and vacations every year, often meeting up with one or both of our kids. It’s fun! Our budget is much less constrained since the kids no longer have ed expenses.
After the kids are done with college I think it is a great idea for parents to take time out for travel. Don’t wait till retirement to start doing things that you’ve always wanted to do. If you are in good health really make use of this time because you don’t want to regret not doing things while you are still healthy enough to do so.
We are not done with tuition quite yet, but we have started taking nice trips since we saved enough for tuition. We actually took ourselves (with no kids) to Hawaii for what we call our empty nest trip. We’ve decided we want to get out and enjoy things while we can still be very active.
We got a great gift for the final graduation - our disposable income jumped as if we suddenly had a job we didn’t have to report to. That was our graduation gift.
On the flip side, each of our kids got the same graduation gift from us. A framed copy of their diploma, and no loans. They weren’t so excited in May, but by September when their friends had loan payments, they understood how that gift was better than a trip to Europe and loan payments for 10 years.
1214 mom, please keep taking trips while you can!
My wife and I still waiting for our gifts.
Absolutely
Parents deserve gifts too.
It should not be a one way street.
When kids are earning even paying for dinner, trips or other gifts on occasion is respectful and appreciated even when not needed.
This is a really cute article. I know a lot of friends/people who say that they dream of buying their parents a house or something sweet like that. I am, too, excited for the day I can do things for them rather than constantly taking. It’s sobering and enlightening to one day look around your dorm room and realize how much you owe to your family.