<p>My mom wants to go to the ice cream social with me. I absolutely love her, but I want to start meeting people there. Is it an event that a lot of people meet each other at?</p>
<p>I am a mom–hence my screen name. Once you get there, it will become REALLY clear that the kids go one direction and the students go the other. You will meet lots of other people with their moms. If your mom needs help making a new friend, just walk over to another parent/child pair and when the parents start talking—go.</p>
<p>It will be easier than you think. Most things are set up for parents OR for students. The University understands the anxiety, so it really helps us all out by setting things up so you hang out with new friends rather than (old) parents.</p>
<p>We had discussed with our son how long we were going to stay. Knowing that he would want to be with ither kids and if we were there, we would want to be with him, we decided we would leave on the 25th.</p>
<p>Our plan is to arrive in the 23rd, do our shopping. Move In and more shopping on the 24th and leave him on the 25th.</p>
<p>Then there is no pressure on him to spend time with us that he would rather be spending meeting people.</p>
<p>Blahbity: Just a parent’s opinion…You have four years to socialize and meet people. Give your mom another couple of hours with you before she has to say good-bye.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s because she’s our second to go to college, or maybe we’re just bad parents, but we plan on spending very little time there:</p>
<p>DD2’s move-in window is between 2 pm- 7 pm on the 24th. We’ll drive to Pitt the morning of the 24th (about 5 hours), do the move in and any necessary shopping in the afternoon. Say goodbye to DD2. In the evening, Pirates game for DH, DD1, and me. Spend the night just east of town, get up in the morning and drive home. If necessary, we could do a shopping trip in the morning before we leave, but only if we run out of time and don’t get it done on the 24th.</p>
<p>DH and I have been on campus twice for tours, etc…if we weren’t already familiar with the campus, maybe we would want to hang around a little more on our own.</p>
<p>If you have done this before then you know what works best for your family. DS was the first to leave the nest so we spent a few days at Pitt. Moved him in and just saw him for dinner the night before we left. It worked out fine – we made it a mini-vacation for us and we were relieved that he had made friends to hang out with.</p>
<p>For child number 2, I believe we will follow the plan of move him in and leave the next day :)</p>
<p>I don’t remember exactly what was the ice cream social last year, but I vaguely recall standing outside late at night (probably 10pm or later) during orientation week with music being played and tons of freshmen walking around eating ice cream. There weren’t any parents there at all. Whatever it is, it probably isn’t all that important of a thing to go to.</p>
<p>Schrizto–Didn’t they have some big food sampling event last year during orientation where the local restaurants came in and provided FREE food?</p>
<p>@ MD Mom Here is the link for the orientation events:
<a href=“New Student Programs | Student Affairs”>http://www.fye.pitt.edu/documents/Orientation_schedule_2010.pdf</a></p>
<p>On page 5 for Tuesday, Aug. 24th one event states:
Discover Pittsburgh!
William Pitt Union; Assembly Room and Ballroom, Main Floor
A family favorite! Discover Pittsburgh’s distinctive food, history and cultural community at this fun event. Learn about Pittsburgh’s vibrant arts and entertainment scene and sample food from local restaurants.</p>
<p>We were there last year, but that is the event, thank you Pittsmom.</p>