Who Attends a Graduation Ceremony?

[Anonymous]

Parents and siblings of the graduate.

Have dinner or a party after the event. Invite other family and friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the aunt and I asked if I could attend recitals and the like. I love it. I'll attend whatever I'm invited to.

The only correct answer is the people who want to go to any of these events should attend. We had massive drama over a dance recital recently in my family. My sister bought tickets for parents and my family, assuming we all wanted to be there. I wouldn’t mind seeing my niece in her recital but had something else I wanted to do that night. My kids, her teen cousins, did not want to be there. They were very well behaved but obviously not thrilled and were bored teens. My sister was angry we all didn’t seem overjoyed to be at the recital. Lots of fights later.

Don’t assume anyone wants to attend anything.

[Anonymous]

High school and college graduations have ticketing and space constraints so it’s rarely extended family.

Just have a family party later that day or a week later or when back in town.

Bfd

[suzu]

ive attended as a aunt
some schools limit tix to 2

[Anonymous]

Routine band performances etc- just parents. I always let my local family members know about sports games and performances, etc so they could show up if they wanted but certainly no expectation that they will. For bigger deal games and performances (eg kid is lead in the high school musical) also let people know and they travel a little bit more of a distance. For upcoming graduation I assume will just be parents and grandparents, one grandparent has to drive about an hour.

[Anonymous]

It’s completely up to the graduate as to who they’d like to invite. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This birthday party thread got me thinking about this. Who should be expected to attend which family events? I know it varies by family, but I’d like to hear what the structure is like in other families.

I’m particularly interested in who should be expected to attend things like dance recitals, and graduation ceremonies. As we know these can be dreadfully boring for family members outside the parents and grandparents but it seems like often times there’s expectations that aunts, uncles and cousins attend. Often times there’s travel included as well as lodging too.

I’m all for families sharing moments together, but what should be the boundary?Parents and siblings? Maybe Grandparents?

I ask because while I love my family and DH’s family, we attended his cousins grad school graduation last spring and it was brutal. DH agreed as well but said he felt like we had to attend. They’re not close either.

We're beyond the birthday party fiasco stage. Ds's Graduation was dh and I, our other sonand my parents. If IL's we're still alive they would have attended also. Aunts, uncles and cousins aren't necessary for much IMO.

[Anonymous]

When our son graduated from HS we invited the local grandparents to the post graduation party. Asking them to sit through a three hour marathon is too much.

[Anonymous]

My first nephew is the family golden child and graduating from college next year. It’s not local, but a 5 hour drive away. I was just wondering how to get out of this. It’s my DH’s family, technically, so can I just send him? Our young kids definitely do not want to sit through that, so why even go?

[Anonymous]

If it’s local, I’d go for nieces and nephews and cousins. But if it requires travel, parents and siblings only. Even siblings might need to miss things depending on the event.

[Anonymous]

We've always lived far (opposite coast) from extended family so it's only been parents or siblings. I'm secretly jealous of the huge families that bring every aunt, uncle, cousin, etc for a crowd of 25+

[Anonymous]

I can't even imagine not having siblings and grandparents at a major graduation (high school or college) if they are physically able to make it. I came home from my honeymoon for one, grandparents are coming from overseas for another, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't even imagine not having siblings and grandparents at a major graduation (high school or college) if they are physically able to make it. I came home from my honeymoon for one, grandparents are coming from overseas for another, etc.

Some grandparents just don't care.

[Anonymous]

Grandparents and fun aunts.

[Anonymous]

Tickets are limited at our public school. There’s no rule other than usually you see parents and siblings. I had grandparents, but all it did was add stress and they didn’t enjoy it. My dad enjoyed these things so it was nice to include him despite my mom’s snide comments. Now that he’s gone we would include mom in a celebration with other people where her negativity would be drowned out if she chose to attend. We would not have her at the event giving her running commentary on who is too fat/looks like trash/etc. I don’t need her informing her grandchild the honor chord is garbage due to grade inflation. We allow our kids to enjoy special days with people who don’t poop on their parade.