<p>We went to one parent’s weekend between our three kids. Two were too far away to plan a visit around a dictated schedule. The one we attended was way too contrived for my taste, though we still drink from what we call the $40,000 coffee mug we were given ;)</p>
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That’s really priceless!! :)</p>
<p>Our son’s school has both a dad’s day and a mom’s day. These are the dates that I mark on the calendar as dates that I specifically won’t visit. I don’t need the gridlock or the contrived presentations. Son’s school is close enough for a day trip, whenever we agree on a visit, and my idea of a good time is to take him out to lunch at a decent restaurant, head over to walmart for incidentals, and drop off things at his dorm where everyone acts like Eddie Haskell when they see me. My son knows in advance when we’re going to stop by, so he attempts to place his room into what he considers to be an acceptable state of cleanliness. Let’s just say his concept of cleanliness differs from that of my wife.</p>
<p>Hmmm, well this thread certainly put an end to the dream I was having about spending the ENTIRE weekend with my son and even seeing his smiling face as he woke up in the same hotel room as us. Oh well…To be honest the trip was probably more for me than for him, but I will heed the advice given and play it by ear. The worst thing that can happen is that my H and I will have a nice weekend away from home.</p>
<p>(I hope I get one of those free coffee mugs, because there is no way I am shelling out the money to buy my own)</p>
<p>Parents weekend at both kids schools *is *about the parents.</p>
<p>D1 had a huge HUM 110 paper due parents weekend( freshman year which was the only year I visited at that time - I barely saw her even though it was the first time my mom or her sister had been to the campus.
My mom also couldn’t get around well so while I did a few of the activities ( canyon walks- bio lab tour) we kept future visits to our own schedule.</p>
<p>D2 has more flexible scheduling, we went last year and I think I will go this year, I like going on the tours etc.</p>
<p>Balthezar,</p>
<p>I think my son attended the same school yours is at now. Beside separate parent weekends, they also had siblings weekend. That’s supposed to be kids in the dorms. Yikes!</p>
<p>Siblings weekend at my school is really fun. Though it caused problems last year because my mom would never have allowed my teenage sister to come if she had known my roommate’s teenage brother would be sleeping over with us, which wasn’t decided until the last minute. Oops.</p>
<p>I’ve never even told my parents about parents weekend. Traffic is a nightmare and you have to make restaurant reservations weeks and weeks in advance-- it is so crazy that even when you are not participating in parents weekend it is burdensome. My parents come to visit on their own time, which is also more convenient for me. I would have a hard time just dropping everything on a particular weekend, too.</p>
<p>I went to Parents Weekend 1x with older daughter and 2x with younger daughter, although I did go up to Boston another weekend and visited older daughter and scheduled a college tour for younger d at another school. All visits included dinner and shopping. Younger d stayed in older d’s dorm room-no expectation of seeing them for breakfast. Did not do any of the formal PW events at older d’s school but walked around campus to see her classroom buildings and took advantage of the incredible Rose Art Museum. With second d, she was performing both times as part of PW events and had rehersal time so we did football game and as no expectation of seeing her for breakfast on Sunday AM, did take advantage 2x of meet the dean breakfast-my take is that it is a good opportunity to hear the latest and greatest news from those in charge and enjoy the parent q @ a. First visit to older d-- she had a major exam on that Monday so we did try to get on the road fairly early for study time. Second d-longer drive, left mid-day on Sunday so she could get her work done as well. Other visits involved seeing younger d in performances and older d’s art openings and helping move in to off-campus apt’s and housing when needed. Both did study abroad first semester jr. year so had winter move-in in January of jr. year…and then of course… the graduation weekends.</p>
<p>We are looking forward to parent weekend, but it is a splurge that we are doing because parents want to visit. DS will spend time with us, but he wouldn’t give a hoot if we skipped it. Happily he has no class on Friday, so that will make it easier to spend time together. He liked the idea of of buying tickets to see the commedian, Howie Mandel. Perhaps he doesn’t realize he’ll actually have to sit with us.</p>