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I’m going to be attending my son’s graduation very soon. This is my third and last child graduating. I’m so glad they’ve all made it! The big entry to life as a grown up!

Tense and Joyful, Graduation has become a time for fear among parents – It’s a crapshoot, someone’s going to have some sort of accident around graduation time, who’s child will it be? Even though it doesn’t eliminate the hazards, many schools create “safe” graduation parties, where parents must attend and must give permission for their child to use alcohol while monitoring their behavior. No one drives, everyone is bussed to the party. It’s not ideal, but it is the most currently used solution to balance graduate safety with a desire to over-celebrate the ending of an era.

So! If you’re the parent attending…take some advice.

1. Bring a chair. It’s a long night.
2. All they have for the parents is coffee so if you don’t want that all night, bring something else.
3. They say parents can’t drink alcohol, but really, they can. If they want. They are sneaky. That is where their children learned it from.
4. Once a child is already sick it is too late to tell them they shouldn’t drink so much. Save your energy.
5. If a couple of kids have moved towards the bushes, and you want to get them out of there, but really don’t want to know what they’re doing, yell when you are still 50 feet away or so.
6. They are teenagers. They smell your fear. Be firm.
7. Don’t expect your child to dance with you. They’re probably not going to.
8. Don’t enter your child’s group of friends and dance with them. That is not where you are supposed to be. You are embarrassing them.
9. Embarrass them anyway.
10. If you take #9 piece of advice, don’t expect to get invited to the wedding – the next big celebration.

And most of all, let your children be who they feel they are meant to be. Support them as they grow and change. Love them unconditionally. Just because you instantly see their potentially doesn’t mean they do. They are still growing into their adult selves. They still need you, it’s just that they are learning to need you differently.

Blessings and congratulations to all the graduates and their parents out there. Comment now!

Kelly Karius, @KellyKarius on Twitter