<p>I was wondering, during orientation do most of the parents come and stay?
I wanted to know if I should send my parents early or if they should just stay for most of it?
Have to buy flights soon. Thank you :D</p>
<p>ND will have events scheduled for your parents and yourself all the way up until Sunday afternoon - the Welcome Mass.</p>
<p>Not sure about the exact number, but when our son (will start his 4th yr.) went through orientation I would say many parents attended and stayed. Friday is mainly move-in with a picnic later in the afternoon for students and families. After we moved our son in my wife and I ran to do some shopping. Plans were to go to the picnic but when we got back we could tell our son and his roommate had other thoughts which was fine with us all families are different. We are local to the University, so we went to our younger sons football game instead of the picnic. Saturday we attended all of the events and there wasnt anything that was a waste of time. I would highly recommend parents go to the orientation; it is what I will refer to as an educational day. You will learn a lot about Notre Dame. However, if there is a decision not to attend all of the events I would say without hesitation the Welcome Mass on Sunday morning is a must . Catholic or not; this is special. </p>
<p>I think orientation was over by 1:00-2:00 for the families. The students may have had more things to do, but we as parents were done. </p>
<p>By the way: Congratulations!!!</p>
<p>While every family is different, my husband and I really enjoyed orientation - it was a chance to spend some time with our son, as well as get to know his roommate, roommate’s family, and the dorm he was living in. It certainly made the parting much easier for the parents. Notre Dame is such a special place, and they really understand all the conflicting emotions going on for both the students and families. It was so worth it for us to go!!</p>
<p>Anyone whose parents were NOT able to stay the entire time—did you feel bad about it, or are you so caught up in everything it really doesn’t matter? My husband is only able to stay through Friday night, maybe a few hours early on Sat morning…I hope my son doesn’t feel abandoned. :(</p>
<p>It’s not a big deal whether parents are there or not. For parents (especially those not as familiar with the university), I’m sure orientation will provide some useful information. For the students it doesn’t really matter if the parents are there or not. Theyll have plenty of stuff to keep them busy</p>
<p>I also don’t think it is a huge deal if your parents aren’t there. The only thing that is a little bit of an issue is if you forget something and realize it on saturday and you can’t go out and get it. But then you can always just pay someone’s parents to get your stuff when they go out - a great way to potentially meet some more people. Additionally, I found it great to have parents that weren’t always there (i.e. my parents stayed but weren’t always around). It allowed me to meet more people and socialize rather than go out to eat with my parents and spend time around campus with them. I realize that it is great to do so, but I found it a great way to meet more people during the first couple of days which is great when you are trying to establish a sort of foundation in a new school. My parents visited ND again later and we did all the site seeing stuff and eating at restaurants around ND. </p>
<p>But either way it is a great time, but I wouldn’t worry about not having your parents around. The biggest problem is if you realize you forgot something on Saturday and they left but you can always try to jump with someone else and head to a store around ND. </p>
<p>Best of Luck!</p>
<p>Thank you, Thickfreakness and hawkswim. I figured it wouldn’t matter too much. When I brought my daughter to her orientation at a different school, I could tell she could hardly wait for me to leave, she was so eager to hang out with her new friends and get involved in activities! Hopefully my S won’t think of too many more things he needs once his dad leaves. But even if he does, it seems like it’s way easier to get to the stores than it was when I was there back in the '80’s!</p>
<p>We should be finding out about dorm assignments soon…it’s funny how many dorms have switched from male to female or vice versa since I was there and how some aren’t even used as dorms anymore.</p>
<p>Since my family lives far away from the university and my parents need to work, I won’t be coming to orientation with my parents. Instead, I plan to go to orientation with my older brother, who lives near the university. Is this all right? Will my brother feel out of place when placed into activities for parents?</p>
<p>DO you see lots of younger siblings at orientation activities?</p>
<p>^I would say there are a good amount of siblings and my sister went…it just can get very boring for them especially if they are not in high school. My sister was entering high school so some of the sessions she liked because it served as almost a school visit, but at the end of the weekends she found herself skipping most of the sessions and just staying in the hotel.</p>