Vent - college orientation and little kids

I agree with you.

Sometimes things have a background story that changes an opinion.
Last spring I attended my 50 year college graduation reunion. One lady had her 3-6 month old grandbaby there. Of course the little thing was occasionally fussy etc. The first night, I thought "OK she wants to show off her grandbaby."
After the baby was at every dinner/memorial service, etc I was growing a little annoyed. "Why didn't she show the baby to us and then take it somewhere?" At our last evening dinner, (a big production)--Someone explained that the reason she had the baby was child protective had taken the child and on Friday afternoon either she took the baby or it was going into foster care.
At that late date/hour she could not make other arrangements and she had paid her money for the reunion and really wanted to see her college friends. When she went home she was facing setting up a baby world in her life.

After I learned that, I was OK that she brought the baby.

Your family might have some wild story as the reason they had the twins there. I do agree that it should have been "tag teamed" so that one parent stayed with babies and the other went to the meetings.

YES! When DS1 and I went to 'Transfer Day' at Tech there was a whole 7 member family there. Mom, Dad, Transfer student, a teenage girl about 13 and two kids under the age of 3 (and the baby was about 4 months old) or so. During the introduction section, they told us they actually lived about 25 min away. Why wouldn't you leave all the extra Kida at home instead of dragging them to a large University to go to meetings, tours, etc?

I agree with librarylady. There may be a reason why both parents are there as well as the babies, BUT, I too think the parents should be trying to do more to keep them happy & quiet than just "shush"ing them all day. Even if it was as simple as them just both wanting to be there but mom still nursing, so the kids came along, it probably could still work with little bother to others if they handled things differently.


Sorry they kept interrupting things for you, OP. No matter what the reason, it still stinks to be trying to learn and gather information and keep missing things due to small children being there.

OMG if that isn't the rudest thing ever... seriously??? 

I agree too if there is an emergency.. I get that, but both parents are at the college thing.  One needs to be with the babies and one be with the college student.  

One thousand years ago when I started college I went alone, as did almost everyone I knew. Same for DH.
Our oldest wanted to go alone, and did. You would have thought we had allowed him to be taken by wolves, according to our friends reactions. At first I was sad, like I'd been left out, but then I realized we'd raised a capable soon-to-be-adult, and that's what the last three years have proved.

How embarrassing for the college student. Why do parents need to go at all?

Sidetracking a little bit, but both of our daughters went to the same University, four years apart.  Both orientations were set up with a parent track and a student track.  A few times we came together but most of our orientation classes were separate.  I just thought it was a normal thing to attend orientation with your soon-to-be college freshman?

And to keep this on track:  I validate you!  Use a sitter, only one parent attends or, at the least, one parent takes the child(ren) out to stroll the campus while the other parent stays with the college kid.

Same at my daughter's school. We had lunch and an initial meeting all together and then I went to a parent presentation and she went to one for new students and registered for her first semester.  The whole thing was about 4 hours long. Her school is a 3.5 hour drive away and we stayed in a hotel the night before, so I wasn't going to send her alone. My younger daughter (12 at the time) went with us, but my sister had met us there and they went shopping during the orientation. A kid would have been bored to death listening to all of it. I have zero problem with babies being someplace, but it they are a disruption to others they should be taken out. It seems crazy to me that one of the parents didn't push the stroller around campus when they started fussing.  SaveSaveSaveSave

I went to Transfer Orientation at Texas Tech with my oldest. They had meetings for parents and meetings for the students. SaveSave

Is this a new thing that parents attend orientation? Many moons ago my parents drove me to university. They hugged me goodbye. Day #1 was registration (no online registrations students lined up at tables), day #2 was orientation, then classes started that Monday. No one went home that weekend because that was orientation for each residence and the start of freshmen orientation on campus. I don't know one freshman who had a parent attend any information session.

I'll validate you too. I would be annoyed.

I have to admit, I never knew there were college orientations for parents. I learn so much from this board! My oldest will be a junior in high school so we haven't done the college thing yet. When I went to college in the '80s there was not an orientation for parents (or if there was one my parents didn't go).

What is there to talk about all day?

I went with my daughter to Orientation. We lived 1,000 miles away and I had to help her move in. I enjoyed it, mostly because they did fun stuff for the parents -- tours of Atlanta and brunch and stuff like that. I didn't go to any academic orientation stuff. I enjoyed my trip, and did my own thing once DD was settled in her room.

When I went to college, my parents dropped me at the curb. They literally did not even go inside with me. I bought some sheets and a comforter from the campus store, and was good to go. I'm pretty sure they never visited my dorm over the four years -- it was out of state, but they came through town a few times a year.

LOL, I forgot to comment on the topic. That would have annoyed me a lot. One parent should have taken the crying babies outside to not disturb everyone.

Hmm, I can only tell you about one University in the last eight years (I graduated college, but started at a CC, so didn't have the freshman orientation experience):  Orientation was held in the summer - in fact it was last week - and then school, of course, started in the Fall.  We attended orientation with our daughters, and then in the Fall came back to move them in.  If I remember right, after we moved them in, we were pretty much kicked out (nicely) by our daughters and/or the RA's because they had dorm things planned.    Two different events, almost three months apart...