<p>Parents, please remember that *it’s okay *to not spend every second of every day with your son or daughter! If you’re there for an entire weekend, go ahead and have a couple of dinners, walk around campus with them, take them into town, and then say “Mom & Dad are going to take a short nap or do some exploring on our own. We’ll meet you at the campus center at 5:00, okay? Then we’ll hang out for awhile and then go out for dinner.”</p>
<p>I think if everybody gives everybody else a little bit of space, everybody will be very happy to have a weekend together.</p>
<p>It’s Parents Weekend, not Thanksgiving-from-Hell-with-the-world’s-worst-relatives. Relax and enjoy it, and give each other some space.</p>
<p>If it’s University of Puget Sound, I’ll see you there idahomom! (How many schools can have a Logger as the mascot?) The Logger Food Fest is an outdoor food booth event. And it’s supposed to start pouring rain on Saturday after a lovely week here in the northwest. </p>
<p>Unlike the girl in the article, my son says he is looking forward to my arrival. But that may be because I am bringing his electric guitar with me. Whatever it takes.</p>
<p>I’ve been to a parent’s weekend (freshman year) and a family weekend (sophomore year). In both cases we talked a bit ahead of time about what we would do together and separately. We talked more the second year, having learned from the first.</p>
<p>Freshman year, S agreed to do more stuff with us than he had planned when he saw that we wanted him to. We were perfectly fine with doing some of the parent-oriented stuff on our own. At no time did he treat us the way that girl treated her parents. I was glad that her father finally put his foot down and allowed her to see that her behavior was genuinely hurtful. I was also glad that they made peace quickly.</p>
<p>Sophomore year S seemed happy to spend more time with us than freshman year. (Although he did put the kibosh on my desire to participate in the karaoke evening! ) He even took us to his frat house where we hung out and watched a movie with a few kids. He didn’t seem to be at all embarrassed by us, by our bursting into song over dinner in front of his GF–The Lion Sleeps Tonight, brought on by the karaoke discussion --or by his obviously-gay godfather, with whom he is very close.</p>
<p>I realize that kids are often embarrassed by the mere existence of their parents at the same time as they love them, but this girl’s behavior seemed a bit immature to me.</p>
<p>My school’s parent weekend is quite a bit different. While we have those activities, the weekend is more about cocktail parties, dinner, and partying with your parents.</p>
<p>Wow, I think people are reading way too much into this. I took it as an amusing essay about how this burgeoning adult and her parents are having to deal with their new reality. </p>
<p>For the record, I didn’t like the alcohol part either.</p>
<p>It may be just me, but I don’t really see the attraction of “Parent’s Weekend.” I would much rather visit my child when it is convenient for me and for her and just spend time hanging out, going out to dinner, seeing the sights (she is in a large “tourist” city). I have no desire to go to any of the events - lectures, concerts, meet the dean, etc - that her college has planned. Since we live so far away, we probably won’t be able to visit at all this year, but next year we will probably go in the spring when the cherry blossoms bloom (I guess I just gave away the city!)</p>
<p>I also agree with youdon’tsay: The article was perhaps a little exaggerated, but haven’t we all seen our kids embarrassed to be around us at one time or another. We can’t eat in a restaurant in our home town because there is this really cute guy working there that my D likes and she is convinced that we will say something to humiliate her.</p>
<p>We just got back from Family Weekend last weekend. We actually spent very little time on campus - Friday we met S at his dorm, met a lot of his new friends then went out to dinner. Saturday he had a rugby game about an hour and a half from campus so we met him there. It was fun meeting a lot of other parents of his team mates. We then went out to lunch and took him back to his dorm. Picked him up later that night for dinner. We didn’t get together Sunday - we wanted to do some tourist things and he needed to study. What was interesting was the relationship between him and his younger brother (15 yo). It started out great on Friday but deteriorated the next day. I think younger is starting to get used to being “the only child” and was getting tired of brother getting so much attention. Anyway, we’re now on opposite coasts so we won’t see our son until winter break - should be interesting!</p>
<p>didn’t see the humor. why are so many parents (and i say this because i encountered several parents like this at my son’s high school) so afraid of their kids? yes, kids get cranky sometimes and say stuff, but some of the things this kid said were just uncalled for! and then the parents turn around and buy alcohol. it seems that kids with older parents get away with this kind of thing a lot more (by older, i mean parents who are well into their 50s by the time the kid hits high school/college). maybe the larger gap in age contributes to a certain type of leniency?</p>
<p>Ah, doesn’t anybody else laugh at “Baby Blues” and “Zits” cartoons? I laughed at the article the same way. It does not mean I want me kids to be exactly that way. It just means I can relate to some aspects of the humor.</p>
<p>Well… I only went to one parents’ weekend. It was tense at times. My kid’s behavior wasn’t as bad as the D in the article, but have there been times when I was angry because my offspring were embarrassed by me? yep. </p>
<p>What I actually find most offensive is that the D might be identifiable to her friends. The mom gets angry when the friend says 'Don’t you have a GPS?" and thinks “Don’t you have a mother?” Any good will the parents might have gained for the D will be wiped out by that comment. I honestly think it was insufferably rude of the mother to write the article. I suspect that if I were a classmate of the D’s I would steer clear of her parents in the future. I wouldn’t want to run the risk that I’d be fodder for another article.</p>
<p>I did think the article was funny and I’m glad so many of you have kids who are always respectful. But I do feel sort of sorry for the D because I wouldn’t have wanted my own parents to complain about some bratty behavior of mine in a column in the NY Times.</p>
<p>Parent of a girl. She has good manners and cares about her parents’ feelings. We have good manners and care about her feelings. The way this girl talked to her parents is sad, and I’m grateful my family treats each other better and certainly seems to like being with one another more. The story struck me as pathetic on several counts.</p>
<p>My first is at college, a son. I am not going to parent’s weekend. I feel that it will be a huge crush, and I can’t spend the whole weekend out there (my mother is ill)</p>
<p>I drove out last weekend, a 2 hour drive. We had brunch there, took a stroll around campus, and I drove him to a Target and let him stock up on stuff. I spent a little time with him at his dorm (his roommate had gone home for the weekend), then I left. Spent about 4 hours with him.</p>
<p>I had already done several campus activities with him during the lead up to this fall - the original tour, the admitted students day, and the engineering open house. I’ve been on campus tours and heard plenty of speeches. Both S and myself are put off by trying to enjoy ourselves in somewhat contrived situations. I felt I had a much more enjoyable experience hanging with him that day - it was low key and relaxing. No crowds, no schedule.</p>
<p>Blogging about buying beer and liquor for freshman kids is bizarre. Frat guys many times get a bad wrap, but older son’s frat had some very nice events to include the parents (brunches,etc.- guys making sure to clean up the house for parents events as best they could!). I really did not find this story too funny. I agree with jonri that mom should not have talked about this in such a public way. Could come back to bite her ( and daughter).Going to visit younger son this weekend to take him some things but will not be going on Parent’s weekend. Have already talked with him about where he wants to eat, does he need time to study during our visit,etc. The key , as someone earlier said ,for us seems to be to to make sure they know that they don’t have to spend every second with us just because we will be in town. I have been glad to see that they want to do things with their college friends as long as they save some time for mom and dad! We have had our fair share of eye rolling, miscommunication, tension, over the years but I don’t think it has ever been as bad recently as what this article portrays. More of that kind of behavior was in the high school years than currently.</p>
<p>I DO hope she was exaggerating. I like humor as much as the next person but thought there was something off about this. Hopefully, she really did not actually buy alcohol for these kids. Maybe some of us are taking this too literally. Hope so for her sake as well as for the sake of her daughter and friends.</p>
) He even took us to his frat house where we hung out and watched a movie with a few kids. He didn’t seem to be at all embarrassed by us, by our bursting into song over dinner in front of his GF–The Lion Sleeps Tonight, brought on by the karaoke discussion