<p>@2016BarnardMom - Your dad’s wife sounds lovely ;). I have a SIL like that only she’s 1000 million times worse. Seriously no exaggeration. But thankfully she & Max’s brother stopped speaking to the family years ago so we rarely have to deal with them. Pretty sure they’re KAOS spies, lol. A few years ago I decided that life is too short to deal with people who simply cannot be kind. It’s made life so much more enjoyable.</p>
<p>Countdown – graduation is tomorrow! My dad and his wife (who also has high housecleaning standards but has been incredibly kind and never expects me to meet them) arrived last night. While I’ve been at work today I hope they took my S out for lunch and we’ll all meet for dinner. I’m still recovering from the four-day camping weekend. So many loose threads at work and at home I’ll be amazed if everything happens as it should this week. If it doesn’t, c’est la vie. That’s fancy French related to “smile and nod.” Good luck to you, @2016BarnardMom and @momreads. We’re barely keeping up even though we have our basic health intact. Not even trying to finish off any house projects. Anybody who knows us knows we don’t prioritize these things. Helps to set a low bar :-)</p>
<p>Congratulations!!! Good luck to every one!</p>
<p>I am looking forward to the graduation and relaxing time. Senioritis hit D big time and I am trying to get her to do the remaining tests and homework that she needs to work on. Hopefully she will get all those done before the due date. @momreads, I will show your note to D. D needs to get those thank you notes done this week, so many people helped her the last four years and she needs to take the time to write a nice thank you note. </p>
<p>I have a dad’s wife situation too! She hasn’t had contact with us for 5 years and now insists on coming to S’s graduation! I agreed, but they are taking him out before for lunch and we’ll get him after with my mom. It will be fun sitting with them during the ceremony – NOT!</p>
<p>S14 graduates tomorrow. My 82 yo MIL is quite ill with effects from advanced pancreatic cancer and is determined to attend the noon ceremony at the arena in our city then go to lunch with us. I am feeling ambivalent about her wish to participate . Our family is very close and to her and we have always included her in all our celebrations but I want to enjoy my son’s achievement, not worry about her comfort , needs, etc. tomorrow. Am I being selfish?</p>
<p>@Minnymom
Nope you’re not being selfish. Is there a way that Minnydad can talk to her?</p>
<p>@Minnymom You’re not being selfish, but at the same time, with pancreatic cancer, this could be the last time she gets to attend something important like this. Can you designate someone to look after her so you can focus on your son? Do you have another child who will be there who could be in charge of grandma? Often times, terminally ill patients are holding on until after a special event- a birthday, an anniversary, a holiday… your son’s graduation could be that thing for her. And, I’m concerned your husband might feel resentful if he doesn’t get to share that day with his mom too, especially if it is the last special event she is able to attend at all. </p>
<p>Yes and yes. My SIL will bring her and be her attendant in the wheelchair seating area. We have a plan for the ceremony. I don’t know how lunch will go as she doesn’t really eat anymore and is slipping cognitively. I do feel that she has been holding on for this milestone. Thank you for reminding me of that ( in the gentlest of ways.)</p>
<p>awww…Minnymom - I get it. My mom is here recuperating and she ended up not coming to graduation. It was about 45 minutes from home, and we were going out to eat first and a lot of walking and maneuvering and she actually bowed out and said she didn’t want the focus and attention on her, especially if she couldn’t make it through it. After being there having a wheelchair there would have been challenging. </p>
<p>And graduation is over! After a zillion ceremonies I was actually glad this one only lasted an hour. Then it’s grad night tonight at the local military base where all the kids go - bowling, movies, swimming all kinds of funny crazy games with prizes, etc. Since it’s on a military base you can’t just get on and off so buses leave at 2:30 am and 4am - and it takes the kids back to the school parking lot. I find it odd they think it’s okay to have kids driving home in the middle of the night like that. Leaving it up to d which bus she takes.</p>
<p>@eyemom- your mom sounds very gracious. Congrats to your family on D’s graduation!</p>
<p>Grad Night sounds like a ton of fun. I am a committee member for our Grad Night. We also put our grads on buses and rent out a water park, mini golf complex . Kids can drive go carts, play lazer tag, play all the arcade games . We hire a DJ and hypnotist act, have a photo booth, airbrush tatoos , pizza, soda, candy. Our 400ish grads have the place to themselves from 9 pm to 4am. It’s a blast and I will work it with DH from early evening til as late as I can take it. Wish me luck!</p>
<p>@eyemamom - our kids are not allowed to drive themselves home after grad night, they must be picked up when they return to school at 6:00 am. </p>
<p>@Minnymom - you are brave, I am a night person, but I know I couldn’t work the event. </p>
<p>Congrats to all the kids who have graduated already!</p>
<p>I’m way behind (was caught up to May 15th) due to being busy with our youngest son’s Bar Mitzvah, which was this past weekend. That involved a series of 4 parties, and we are all exhausted but proud. DS11 was home briefly and is now off across the country for his summer internship that starts tomorrow. Luckily, my DS14 does not want a graduation party. His grandparents will be in town for graduation and we’ll go out for dinner (and he’s also getting a very nice graduation gift). Graduation is still 2.5 weeks away for us but he’s pretty much “checked out” at school after the AP exams. They are not just watching movies, they have projects to do in all his classes (except his online AP Calc class which is completed, so he has a free period then). </p>
<p>DS had no interest in prom, but did go on the senior trip when a friend invited him to be in a hotel room with him. He’s not sure about whether or not he’ll go to the all night party after graduation. @calla1 and @crowlady my DS11 had no interest in any of that stuff in HS but he is happy with his social life in college. He has a group of friends, most of whom he now lives with off-campus. No significant other yet, though. But these kids have lots of opportunity to find “their people” in college.</p>
<p>@ordinarylives what a terrible idea to give a pet as a gift! Glad they found a good home in the aviary. </p>
<p>@Agentninetynine sorry to hear about your extended family ditching your kids’ events after you attended all of theirs!</p>
<p>@calla1 and others, here they have the kids wear cap and gown to the senior awards ceremony. They also enter to pomp and circumstance IIRC from my older son’s senior award ceremony. We haven’t been invited yet, but we know our DS will be receiving recognition at that ceremony for a math award he actually already received, so I assume we’ll be going. We kind of hate the award ceremonies because they go on and on with lots of talk about what the awards are for, or telling about the person in whose name a scholarship is given etc. </p>
<p>@momreads & @Moonmaid sorry about the sour situations with the sports coaches!</p>
<p>Congrats to @Maryjay60 on the new grandchild!</p>
<p>@2016Barnardmom be sure to take care of yourself! sorry to hear about your dad’s snarky wife :-/</p>
<p>Hugs to @Minnymom – I hope all goes well with your MIL and that you are able to enjoy graduation and celebrate your son while also allowing her to have that </p>
<p>Gardening: We have tomato plants to go into the ground sometime this week (once we get past the cold snap coming for the next few days) as well as zucchini and cukes to plant. I’m trying to muster the energy…</p>
<p>Our “all night” party for grads only goes until 1am which seems a much more reasonable time for kids to be driving home. DS14 is not a night person though, so not sure he’ll really want to stay out even that late.</p>
<p>We are supposed to pick up our grad back at the school at 4am…I can hardly wait, especially with then having to host a party later that day. Hopefully there will be time for a nap!</p>
<p>Baccaulaureate was tonight with graduation rehersal tomorrow at 7:30 AM. That the heck? They have nothing all day but they want them at school at the crack of dawn!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Graduation is Thusday evening. Family dinner with grandparents (Mom’s parents), DS-2011 and parents Friday evening and graduation party on the 7th. The next week will be busy.</p>
<p>That’s crazy @AvonHSDad! Is the venue that booked up? Must have been a lot of kids half-asleep this morning - seems like it would go a lot faster and easier with awake kids at least a few hours later.</p>
<p>Kudos to you @mathmomvt. I cannot fathom hosting something as time consuming as a Bar Mitzvah in the middle of graduation chaos. </p>
<p>@AvonHSDad - That’s just cruel to set practice time at 7:30. What are they thinking?</p>
<p>@Crowlady - We have a fairly low bar as well, but the house is way overdue for painting. We delayed it last year since we were traveling so it’s come down to a week before the party. It’s a craftsman farmhouse so it’s not easily prepped or painted. </p>
<p>A few of Spygirl’s teachers assigned projects so she’s busy in some classes, movie watching in others. But she and Spykid are both involved in a summer ec and there’s a looming deadline for paperwork and prep for that going on as well. </p>
<p>Grad night is still a week and a half away. It’s an all night affair from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. at an undisclosed location full of games, food and fun. Buses transport the kids back to school and parents are to pick them up. We are also strongly requested to take a shift. I’m working the 10 p.m. - 1 a.m. slot - ugh.</p>
<p>Congratulations to all those who have graduated!!</p>
<p>My son is exhausted. He was up late last night doing an English project, which still isn’t completed. He is done. So am I. Enough already, let’s get to the finish line. </p>
<p>I’m with you @calla1. Once we make it through graduation and grad night we have 4 parties to attend the following evening. And our son has school the next day. His last day is June 12th - can’t wait for summer.</p>
<p>So nice to read all of the graduation stories! Congrats to all.</p>
<p>@Agentninetynine for us, it’s been more like upcoming graduation in the midst of Bar Mitzvah chaos 
Graduation is not until mid-June, but S2 (my 2014 boy) was on his senior the Thursday night before the Bar Mitzvah, which was also the night of S3 (bar mitzvah boy)'s school play, and we picked up S1 from school on the Wednesday, and dropped him at the airport for his internship Monday morning! This coming weekend is “June” orientation for S2. Then a trip to the Boston area for a baby naming the next weekend, and then graduation the following weekend, and his 18th birthday the next week. But like I said, we’re really not doing anything big for graduation (or the 18th birthday). So for us, the maximal chaos has passed and we’re coasting in for the home stretch. </p>