I was browsing youtube earlier today and came across a video. It depicted a young woman who was moving into college. The student and her parents were obviously very excited, and filmed everything.
Here is where the stupidity starts. After taking the elevator up to her daughter’s floor, the mom saw a sign for women’s restroom. She barged right in and continued to film. Didn’t knock to see if anyone was in the bathroom stalls or showers. Opened up the shower curtains without any qualms. I couldn’t imagine a dumber thing to do. Imagine the horror if you were in the bathroom when the mom walked in with her camera?!
But I can empathize with the parents, I was excited when my son moved into his college dorm and wanted to capture the experience. Any other stories of dumb things that parents do during college orientation/move in??
What’s wrong with a bedskirt? It hides the stuff under the bed.
Dumbest thing…bringing too many people. We saw families where both parents, grandparents, multiple siblings and the student were all trying to be in the room at the same time as the roommate. These rooms aren’t very big. Leave extra people…at home.
I am determined to NOT be that parent who embarrasses her child during move in. I have talked with DS about how he wants move in to happen, what my responsibilities are, and how I will exit gracefully. I asked permission to take pics of his dorm room, but agreed not to ask his roommates to gather for a photo. (Now if another kid’s parent gathers up the guys for a photo op, I DO have permission to snap a photo also.)
They stay too long. They take the kid to lunch and dinner and hang around. Let your kid get acclimated and meet the rest of their floor and participate in orientation activities. It’s time - just GO.
That would be rather awkward if DS had the top bunk.
They don’t leave. Like move-in is Thursday and they’re still on campus on Sunday. But I guess that’s more embarrassing than dumb. And the embarrassing tales would be a long list.
When my oldest daughter started at college, a mom slept on her daughter’s dorm room floor throughout orientation to make sure she knew where her classrooms were on the first day of school.
We met a family that brought 8 large suitcases plus a couple of small ones, for their son. They couldn’t unpack all the stuff because there wasn’t enough space.
For those of you on your first kid in college, let me just plant a thought way ahead of time about bringing physically infirm elderly grandparents to the graduation down the road and whether they are truly up for the stamina of the day or not. Just a thought. Back to move in day…
Actually, not even infirm. Even if the grandparents are active like Jane Fonda, leave them at home (maybe bring one along if spouse isn’t coming). Leave the siblings at home too. It’s an 8 by 10 room - nothing to see and with kids rolling hand trucks or laundry carts in the hallways, you’re only in the way… There’s always Homecoming or Parents’ Weekend that will be a better time for the extended family to come visit after junior has settled in.
Arguing! My wife had to make my kids beds and hang their clothes up etc their first year. She had s tough time with the separation. My daughter didn’t want any help with anything. It got loud. I let both kids know that she needs to do this so let her. It works much better now but this year she is staying home and I am just going with. ?
I don’t know the full story but apparently after a prior move in fiasco, my son’s dorm had to implement a specific rule that parents couldn’t stay over in the dorm with their kid. :-0
Don’t pull up in a limousine AND and an uhaul truck to the front of dorm instead at the designated loading dock.
It happened when D1 moved in. An international student’s family (think Crazy Rich Asians) pulled up in front her dorm and made a scene about wanting to move everything through the front door.
We stayed 2 nights (others stayed 3 nights) when our kids moved in. Friday was the move in day. We arrived Thu evening, moved in on Fri (many runs to the B&B), did orientation on Sat, and left in the late afternoon.
I brought all 4 of D’s brothers and H when we moved her in. It worked pretty well since her room was on the 2nd floor. Two of the boys figured out a haul it up system and most of D’s stuff wound up being transported straight from the ground to her room without entering the building.
The embarrassing part was when H started bonding with the roommate’s dad over dead animals (the guy was a taxidermist!) and D announced that she was a vegetarian and would not tolerate dead Bambis hanging on the walls. Suddenly, the brunch H and I had planned with the other parents went away…
On a stranger note, I found out that my dad, from whom I was estranged, had died (about a month before) while we were moving D in. I made the decision not to tell her right away. On Thanksgiving, oldest son mentioned grandpa’s death. D’s reaction reminded me that, in the hecticness of move-in day, that I had forgotten to ever tell her.
Hm. I guess Bowdoin does it right. The kids move in on a Tuesday and, at 4:00 that day, they are all to meet in the field house with their backpacks for their orientation trips. They spend the night there and leave first thing in the morning. Parents are graciously asked to leave campus before 4:00. So…we are getting into town on Saturday to do last minute shopping and have a 7:00 flight out on Tuesday. I have a feeling it’s going to be so busy moving him in and trying to catch the presidential welcome for the parents that 4:00 is going to come pretty quickly. I’m pretty glad about the hard stop. Say goodbye by 4:00.
And I can’t imagine bringing D21. What would be the point of that? She’ll have other times to fly out and visit him. Drop off is all about him getting a little settled and meeting new people. I can’t imagine he would be talking to her much.
From a parent perspective, the thing that drove us the most bonkers were the parents who didn’t follow instructions. Everyone was given a move in time window with detailed instructions of where to unload. It was a well oiled machine…until some parents decided that the rules didn’t apply.
