<p>Wear flats and comfortable clothes that you’ll enjoy seeing later in family pictures. </p>
<p>No one will care what you wear. People are all focusing on their kids and their own graduations and celebrations.</p>
<p>Mimk6,
I too am packing for Yale graduation…Memorial Day weekend… all those events… one thing I have done however this past year, anytime I needed a new dress or special event clothing item, I bought the item thinking “will this work for an event at graduation?” Now, the challenge will be finding those items at the bottom of the dirty laundry hand washing bin…LOL… the key is layers, comfort and flexibility. I am not doing a long dress for the dance… personally, I expect to experience the entire weekend in a blur because I still cannot believe the 4 yrs are just about over… my own college years are still vivid in my mind…my son’s 4 years are over in a blink of an eye…</p>
<p>I’d worry what the graduate would be wearing. They are the ones who will be in the pictures. I was aghast when I discovered he was in jeans, T, and sandals without socks, and having group pictures with his better dressed classmates.</p>
<p>Great point! I reminded S to have his suit cleaned and dress shirt pressed. Maybe I need to connect the dots for him to set my expectations for his attire.</p>
<p>Maineparent, I was thinking my all-purpose black knee length cocktail type dress for the “ball”. Of course, it would look a lot better with about 20 pounds less on me. As would everything else. Maybe they have three days of events to ease us out of the college. We’ll be so ceremonied out that we’ll be ready for it to end.</p>
<ol>
<li> Has anyone else besides me gone back to Weight Watchers to lose 5 pounds before graduation? (Stanford’s is late, not until mid-June, so I do have the time!</li>
<li> Any hints about making graduation comfortable for elderly (90s) grandparents?<br></li>
<li> Munro-brand sandals are sooooo comfortable and look pretty nice–I could and have walked miles in mine.</li>
</ol>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is a widespread practice, but I adore Oberlin for setting up wheelchair rentals for graduation weekend. The amount of walking on the campus exceeds what many elders are accustomed to, and the parking is often tough so it’s hard to ferry them around to events. Ask if your school is doing this, or if not, is it possible to arrange a weekend rental with an area hospital. Perhaps just bring one with you, if anyone in your hometown can lend it. Check with the elders first, of course. It’s akin to needing one in an airport, even if they don’t always need one.</p>
<p>I also bought my Mom one of those hearing assists (advertised on TV) to hear the speaker better from the podium. She packed it, but forgot to bring it to the ceremony, so I should have hovered over her more on that. TUrns out, though, she could hear well enough.</p>
<p>Sunhats and sunscreen are crucial in some locations; also bottled water. Elders don’t always think about those details. Protect them.</p>
<p>We made many decisions to minimize the walking after graduation, for example, chose a picnic lunch provided by the college for $6 rather than all hustle over to a restaurant. That will depend on your elders, of course, but ours appreciated not having to relocate constantly throughout the weekend.
Food meant less to them than being allowed to simply stay put!</p>
<p>If someone can wake up early on graduation morning to sit and hold seats for elders in a shady place, that’s a help. </p>
<p>But they will surprise you! My mom flew in alone, and while waiting to meet us at the Oberlin Inn, she was asked “What year did you graduate?” When she told them, she was warmly ushered over to their 60th reunion table. She only answered her year of graduation, and left off that it wasn’t from Oberlin. Anyway, she was well fed and warmly received, so when we met her she was quite full and not needing dinner, thank you.</p>
<p>It was sneaks and ballcap for the walk to the Diag Saturday. Congrats 2008 class!!!</p>
<p>S1’s graduation from Penn was held in the football stadium. I wore nice but casual. S2’s graduation is from Juilliard - they don’t have a football team (yet – [Juilliard</a> to Add Football Program in 2010; Cellist to Lead Head Coach Search Committee - CBSSports.com](<a href=“http://www.sportsline.com/spin/story/10621372]Juilliard”>http://www.sportsline.com/spin/story/10621372) 
) Probably in a concert hall, and in NYC - I’m thinking I might have to dress up a bit more for this one.</p>
<p>I’m going to a wedding the week before, and am hoping I can make the dress work for two different occasions. (No overlap in people, except my H.)</p>
<p>paying3, thank you for the tips! Stanford actually provides some wheelchairs but also sends info on golf cart and wheelchair rentals so I’m going to do that. But all of the other tips, about saving seats in the shade, water, hats, etc., I will definitely take! Cute story about the grandma’s clever, succinct reply :). Smart lady!
P.S. My dad’s reunion year from Stanford–his 70th–will be 2009…he can celebrate a year early!</p>
<p>At Columbia last year it ran the gamut with some parents in suits and dresses to some decidedly dressed down in shorts and polo shirts. It was held outside and it was HOT. The majority were in nice casual…sundresses, slacks with a blouse, men in khaki pants. At the Columbia College graduation we were under a tent but for the big university event there was virtually no tent coverage. Once again, let me say - it was HOT!</p>
<p>We fried at Wesleyan. Parents were using umbrellas for shade, but I still thought I was going to pass out.</p>
<p>A $5 plastic rain poncho folds up tiny and it can be a godsend. Trust me, you’ll look smart. My law school graduation was like a pounding hurricane, all day…outdoors. The school said it hadn’t rained like that on Commencement since WWI. I haven’t been to Calcutta during the monsoon, but that’s what the crowds of muddy, drenched, bedraggled families brought to mind.</p>
<p>It was really hot at Chicago last year too. I wore a sleeveless linen dress, and H wore khakis and a polo, as did the graduate’s brother and grandfathers. I felt really badly for the male graduates in shirts and ties under those those gowns and especially for the faculty in all their academic regalia. Watch the forecast if the ceremony is outside and come prepared for all possibilities. If you have elderly family members have someone drive as close as possible to the site, drop them off to get seats and send someone else to park the car. If yours is anything like ours, get there EARLY. We had tickets, but not reserved seats and people were lining up over an hour before the gates opened. But really, wear what makes you comfortable, you will see the gamut.</p>
<p>Patient, I was doing WW this time last year and did well and slowly through this darn college application season gained quite a bit back. I’m out of time now but I am going to exercise through the month and try to be somewhat disciplined. When my youngest “culminated” from 5th grade, I lost weight because I was thin when all the other kids were in 5th grade and it seemed important to me – maybe it was my last fling being a “young mom”. I’m not sure I have the commitment to try to be thin for each college graduation – especially since the first one came and went already. But most of the pictures were of faces and smiles and so forth and the most important person in the photo is the graduate.</p>
<p>After all the controversy about moving the Michigan graduation out of the Big House and then to EMU the graduation on the Diag went well. Rain was predicted but that didn’t happen. In the postmortum a lot of the graduates prefered it over the stadium.</p>
<p>Where do ladies of a certain age buy appropriate sundresses that don’t have the spaghetti straps intended for our children but don’t look like something that Aunt Bea would’ve worn? I could use some suggestions.</p>
<p>When I flew from Houston to Golden, Co for my then fiance’s, now husband’s, fairly dressy indoor graduation, I took along the prettiest spring dress and strappy sandals…and no jacket. And it snowed. The weekend before it had been in the 70s…graduation weekend, a sudden winter storm. I could handle the cold, but I required major assistance navigating slippery sidewalks in those high-heeled sandals.</p>
<p>I should have known better…I lived there for several years.</p>
<p>worrywart–I have about given up on fashion, which seems aimed at much MUCH younger women. I am turning into my mother. If it’s comfy and looks reasonably nice, that’s good enough for me (with the occasional exception of formal wear…but 95% of the time I can get by with “comfy.”) So ixnay on the sundresses. </p>
<p>That’s less sunscreen you have to slather on, anyway. :)</p>
<p>And what I hate about packing to attend an event is the uncertainty of the weather. Even if I have the perfect outfit, odds are it will turn cool or rainy and I’ll have to hide it under a coat or a sweater that doesn’t match. And wish I had sensible socks & shoes instead of sandals.</p>