Proud of them for what? 'unless the kid is developmentally disabled or comes from a family where nobody else made it to 8th grade, reaching high school is not an accomplishment.
Yeah, there’s a lot of kindergarten graduation ceremonies/parties around here, plus the elementary graduation, plus the junior high graduation, and then there’s the high school graduation. I’ve heard about some pre-school graduation ceremonies, where the kids are going into kindergarten next year. I think it’s way overkill, and having so many ceremonies lessens the impact. It’s like when couples celebrate their one month anniversary. Well, that’s nice and all, and it’s reason to go out for a nice dinner, but what are you going to do for your 25th (year) anniversary? You have to keep topping the last event.
One of my nephews is an MD, and when I asked what he wanted for a graduation present, he said that he was getting it…he wasn’t going to attend any more graduation ceremonies. He’s happy to be a doctor, but he hates the ceremonies.
I had a kindergarten graduation back in 1964 or so - cap and gown, the whole deal. My next brother skipped K, and I don’t know if they were still doing them four years later when the youngest bro would have had one. Somewhere, Mom has a snapshot of me in the get up, looking proud as can be.
I’m guessing it was tied to the K being in the public school, and then half of us splitting off to Catholic school for 8 years.
Well, I’m screwed. TheKid’s HS grad party is in a little over two weeks and we’ve done little of nothing. Invites have been sent, we know who is doing what, and what food we’re serving. That’s about it.
She had a miniparty in Kindergarten - cookies/punch for family, there was an honors celebration at the end of 6th grade, nothing for “graduating” 8th grade. IIRC, we did go out to dinner, but that was it.
I wonder how many graduation parties run by parents are done just to make sure their kids don’t have a reason to attend graduation “parties” run by the other kids, or by parents who tend to look the other way, where who knows what can happen.
Don’t a lot of high schools organize their own graduation parties pretty much to prevent anything bad from happening?
In my day (mid-late 1970s), it was:
Elementary school (6th grade) - nothing (although there was a “picnic” held somewhere for the sixth graders); I think it was in part because one elementary school in my district was also the middle school and it didn’t mean that much to go from sixth grade to seventh.
Middle school (8th grade) - graduation “ceremony”, in somewhat formal dress (but not cap and gown).
I remember a “sixth grade dance party” being mentioned in Peanuts; it was one of the things Linus promised to end, along with “kindergarten cap-and-gown ceremonies,” if elected student body president. (For the record, in the comic strip, he lost, but in the TV special, he won, only to get a dose of reality from the principal as to just what his powers were.)
TheKid’s school has an all night party the night of graduation, she has declined to attend. It’s on the complete opposite side of the cities, cost $95/ticket, located at a bowling alley, “dinner” consists of tacos. The kicker, in my opinion, is that she would either need to find a ride home or I would need to pick her up at 530am. No thanks. Participation in the All Night Party has steadily decreased over the past 10 years since my nephews attended the same school - back then everyone went. Now, very few go.