Grandparents' lunch at school..

[HannaAddict]

Our school specifically requests no parents. But kids are encouraged to share their special guest. I would not go as a parent even if your school did not explicitly spell it out (first time this year). I dislike this event personally, my mom is deceased and we do not want our in-laws anywhere near our kids school. It is a marketing/business development donation building event though schools don't call it that. There have been articles recently in academic publications encouraging schools to do it as a soft fundraiser. No "ask" but relationship building for future asks.


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[SnuggleBuggles]

Our school specifically requests no parents. But kids are encouraged to share their special guest. I would not go as a parent even if your school did not explicitly spell it out (first time this year). I dislike this event personally, my mom is deceased and we do not want our in-laws anywhere near our kids school. It is a marketing/business development donation building event though schools don't call it that. There have been articles recently in academic publications encouraging schools to do it as a soft fundraiser. No "ask" but relationship building for future asks.


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Our school never uses it for fundraising purposes, up front or setting the stage. Last year was the first time some one in admin brought up the idea of building up to an ask. It's at least better than a "pass the hat" type grandparent event done schools do.

[squimp]

Thankfully our public schools don't have this thing. We only experienced it at the private school, I saw it as an opportunity to get more donations. (insert bag over head smilie)

In our school, the teachers gave the kids who didn't have nearby grandparents a little extra attention that day. I wasn't able to go and it was not a big deal at all.

[carolinacool]

I did go, and saw other parents there, too. *shrugs*

Ours wasn't a fund-raiser at all. The kids did a quick presentation in class, then the grandparents/parents/special guests were invited to take their kids up the lunchroom for a quick breakfast snack. I ended up with two stragglers from DS' class who didn't have a visitor but managed to slide out during all the commotion. lol Now, the book fair was going on and open, so a lot of grandparents took the kids their (what a zoo!), but that was happening the whole week anyway. And they didn't take names or addresses or anything, so I didn't see how they would hit people up later.

I don't know--I thought it was cute.

[IansMom]

Ours isn't a fundraiser either (public school). I don't think that having a book fair there at the same time is a bad idea. My parents would spend a small fortune on books. Some parents do go if a grandparent is unavailable. My mom said out of DS' class of 19, only 4 students didn't have a parent or grandparent. The teacher asked if one girl (who was new that day) could sit with my mom and DS.

This year, grandparents were invited to the classrooms thirty minutes before lunch to talk about how school was when they were in that grade. My mom told me that DS' first grade class was very surprised to learn about the lack of air conditioning and cell phones.m

[ciw]

I did go, and saw other parents there, too. *shrugs*

Ours wasn't a fund-raiser at all. The kids did a quick presentation in class, then the grandparents/parents/special guests were invited to take their kids up the lunchroom for a quick breakfast snack. I ended up with two stragglers from DS' class who didn't have a visitor but managed to slide out during all the commotion. lol Now, the book fair was going on and open, so a lot of grandparents took the kids their (what a zoo!), but that was happening the whole week anyway. And they didn't take names or addresses or anything, so I didn't see how they would hit people up later.

I don't know--I thought it was cute.

Lol, that's not coincidental. The schools in our area hold Grandparents' Day at different times of the year. Some are this month; our school won't have it until early spring. But nearly every single school holds a book fair that week. It's pretty tough for a grandparent to turn down a kid's request for a book. In fact, students who don't bring money to buy books are given a "wish list" form to fill it out and encouraged to share the form with parents and grandparents. I'm fine with holding the book fair the same week; it is a good fundraiser for the PTO. Now, the security nightmare that these kinds of school open houses become does concern me, but that's a whole other post...

OP, I'm glad it worked out for you. Lots of non-grandparents attend the event at our school too, and if my parents couldn't make it one year, I'd have no qualms about going.

[carolinacool]

Ha! Sure, I realize the book fair is a fundraiser, and I figured it was convenient to hold Grandparents' Day that week. I meant the grandparents' event didn't seem like a fundraiser where they were trying to get more money out of them above and beyond the fair. And they didn't collect personal information to hit them up later one. Also a public school here.

As for security, my mom said that's why her school has stopped having people sort of be all over the school (start here, go there). She said too many kids were ending up in the wrong places with no one really watching them.

[twowhat?]

I hate these things too even though we have grandparents nearby who are always looking forward to going. Our school calls it "grandparents and special friends day" but I feel like that doesn't really help. Not every kid has an available grandparent or special friend. Having said that, parents do sometimes attend if they can't find another adult who is special to the child. But even then, not all parents have jobs that would accommodate for this...the whole event takes half up a couple of hours, which is a half-day of work lost (and it might as well be a full day if you decide to stay for lunch as well).

This year there was ONE boy in my girls' classes who had no one. My girls aren't really friends with this boy (and honestly don't really like him...they label him as a troublemaker) but even they came home very sad about the fact that he didn't have a special friend there. I think the poor boy was pretty visibly upset though he tried to hold it together. My mom and MIL grabbed him over and claimed that they were "adopting" him for the day and got him smiling again but it breaks my heart that any child would have to go through that!!

And the event itself is so busy and chaotic that teachers are stretched thin, so even they can't really help provide some extra special attention for these kids

[vonfirmath]

Ha! Sure, I realize the book fair is a fundraiser, and I figured it was convenient to hold Grandparents' Day that week. I meant the grandparents' event didn't seem like a fundraiser where they were trying to get more money out of them above and beyond the fair. And they didn't collect personal information to hit them up later one. Also a public school here.

As for security, my mom said that's why her school has stopped having people sort of be all over the school (start here, go there). She said too many kids were ending up in the wrong places with no one really watching them.

Our schools do NOT hold Grandparents Day the same week as the bookfair. The Primary holds a Literary Night one night during the Fall book fair. And a Science Night during the Spring book fair. The teachers have various activities (Reading-oriented during the fall. And Science-oriented during the spring. Plus the Science Fair projects are on display during the spring.) I haven't found out yet what the Elementary does.

The Fairs are fun to go even without the Book Fair aspect. Some of the teachers dress up. They have a "Guest reader" at the reading night, a "read with a flashlight" hallway and a few crafts (my kids made monster pointers this year). Oh and the everlasting favorite game where you walk around in a circle while the music is going, then jump on a word when it stops. The facilitator pulls a word and if you are standing on the word pulled, you get to choose a free book from those along the wall.

For Grandparents day, it is come at lunch only. They have tables outside to take overflow crowd. But there is no special presentation or anything. Just encouraging people to come and support their kids.

[gatorsmom]

THANK GOD our school doesn't do this. Most of the teachers and administration have large families with kids at our school. We don't do this or many of the other things other schools do. We are too tired! Heck, I'm in the Parent Rep committee and we are all thrilled that we throw 2 school festivals per year! You throw in a couple of biannual class parties, a couple of school presentations and we are worn out. My kids wouldn't have anyone to come either except me or DH and we volunteer for lunch duty a lot anyway so that wouldn't be fun for the kids!