I guess we don’t really do a gift. A trip could happen, but since S22 didn’t get one, he’d feel left out I am sure. I never came up with a good idea for him either. School schedules are so off, a vacation for all is pretty impossible.
The orange cord my daughter ordered from Everytown.org came today. We have no other graduation gear, so trying to decide where to put it and not have it be forgotten.
Fair warning, it is very addictive for transatlantic.
We have given each of ours $1k and a new laptop. Believe me that is HEFTY for us and involves saving, saving, saving, and using 529 funds for the laptops. But, it’s what dad wants to do and they’ve grown up with pretty slim holidays and birthdays so they are very deserving.
We let D pick our summer vacation which is a river cruise on the Rhine in June. She will also be getting a new phone and iPad in May, when I can use my credit card points at a bonus rate to procure them with no cash outlay.
She never asks for anything, so for the most part, I am just buying whatever she needs as I can get her to focus on it. I just bought her mattress topper and bedding for College. I find it best if I can get a screenshot of an infographic that explains the issue (for example an encasement vs traditional mattress pad on a dorm bed) and then give her a choice between two things. Your desk is 30 inches wide, do you want X or Y hutch?
We got our boy a watch. With a message that all good things will come in time.
My 7th grade geometry class was right before lunch so everyone would always stare at the wall clock.
Finally, the teacher covered it up with a sign: “Time will pass, but will you?”
Haha. We’ve gotten to know several neighbors by exchanging misdelivered mail with one another. I had assumed it took 3-5 days normally (which hasn’t matter to me since Netflix moved to streaming), so it’s good to hear that in your case it took 1-2 weeks.
We got our son his first watch going into first grade. It was an old school analog Timex. He was quick to pick up telling time. So quick that in the first week of having the watch, he would wake us at odd hours to tell us the time. He became the official time keeper in his first grade class.
Prices in Switzerland are not for the faint of heart . . .
Amazed at the number of European trips!
Right there with you. I feel like every one of my PTO days this year has been/will be dedicated to college visits, auditions, orientation, drop-off, etc, as well as getting my younger kids to and from their summer camps. Even if I could afford a vacation monetarily, I can’t afford it work-wise.
Until I saw this thread, I hadn’t realized graduation gifts were a thing. C24 hasn’t asked for anything, so I’m not sure what I’d get them, beyond what they’ll need at school.
There is a long-standing vicious rumor that almost all my “gifts” are in some obvious way really for my own benefit.
But I am sure my wife actually loved the 9-foot dinosaur skeleton I got her that one Valentine’s Day. I mean, it was holding an orchid, which makes it romantic, and was totally NOT just an afterthought on the way out of the Home Depot where I had picked up the skeleton on a post-Halloween clearance sale . . . .
Someday.
Glad to see “romance” isn’t dead . . .
They don’t have to be, nor do they have to be remotely extravagant.
I think I got three different dictionaries when I graduated from HS. Probably not a great gift idea today, but anything practical is fine. Or, again, nothing, because as many have explained, the real gift has already been given for any college-bound kid.
I think my kids would much rather see Asia than London (or Europe). But when you live in the East Coast, 6 hour flight vs 15 hours = We’re going to London.
I hate flying (and so do my kids), which is ironic since I travel for work 2-3 weeks/month.
My kid is going to college and a summer music program as his gift, not really kidding, but we are going to go away for Christmas to the Christmas markets in Austria and Hungary.
Right now, D24 says that our graduation gift is “sending me to college.” However, the idea has been planted in her head, so we’ll see what comes out in a week or two. 
Also, we bought her a BedShelfie (tray for the loft bed) last night, and it arrived this morning. Let me tell you that I see exactly how this dorm decorating is going to go. Mom (me): “Why don’t you get the one that’s wood-finished so it won’t show crud?” Her: “It’s ugly. I want to get the white one.”
regarding food prices in other countries…a few years ago we took our four girls to Iceland and upon landing, we walked around downtown to wait for our airbnb to be ready. The girls saw a quick-serve counter place that had quesadillas and asked for a snack.
Sure, I said – mentally calculating that they were 3 bucks each.
Mom was off by a factor of 10.
I paid 30 dollars for a takeout quesadilla.
Times 3 kids.
(4th kid is gluten free, so at least she spared me that day).
High Emotional IQ.