This weekend, family members flocked to campus for Parents’ Weekend. Families overwhelmed Northfield, monopolizing the Northfield Fairfield Inn and driving the prices astronomically high. Local restaurants saw lines out the door. Parents were also spotted sponsoring their children’s trips to a variety of weekend activities: apple picking, coffee shops, Target and Family Fare.
A peculiar phenomenon occurred this year in which parents seemed to flock to parties, too. Many students reported randomly running into their parents at the same sports socials or dorm parties on Saturday and Sunday night. “they told me they were going back to their hotel and then I ran into them in James,” one student said. His parents said, “you thought we were gonna come to college just to visit our son? We’re here to get turnt.”
At a number of sports socials, parents were seen taking part in themes such as toga night and white lies. One mom was seen to be wearing her 1996 wedding dress, participating in her child’s sports team’s vintage-themed social.
On Saturday night, parents were seen walking in an enormous group from east campus across the bald spot, eventually making their way to the row. One mom described she had “heard the row was live” before she embarked on her cross-campus journey. “They just descended on us,” said one baseball player. Another student reported “it was highkey terrifying”. There, other students recalled parents hijacking the aux and blasting 80s hits like Paula Abdul’s ‘Straight Up’, WHAM’s ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’, and Technotronic’s ‘Pump Up the Jam’. One mom stole the aux cord at her son’s social and began playing Biggie Smalls’ “Hypnotize”. “I looked up and my mom was dancing on a table in the middle of a dance circle,” her son reported. “I’ve never seen her do that before,” he added.
Parents were also seen gathering in the Myers first floor lounge. “I was trying to sleep and there was really loud music coming from downstairs so I went to take a look and my mom was doing the macarena in the lounge,” one student described. The Myers gathering escalated around 1am as parents hung up a disco ball and flashing lights and blasted hits like Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome To The Jungle” or Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It.” Eventually it evolved to a long line of parents doing a rockette kick line, which students reported as a “scarring” and “horrific” sight.
Across campus, at SUMO’s movie night, leaders confused the movie schedule and began playing Saltburn in place of previously scheduled Inside Out. One student reported she was “eternally scarred” after watching Saltburn with her parents, who thought it was a great movie. Her mother later asked “what other movies has that Jacob actor been in?”.
Upstairs in Sayles, one student said he was “just trying to run pool” with his friends when he bumped into his parents, also running pool. They later emailed us to let us know they “wiped the floor” with him.
Parents frustrated over being unable to attend the Cave’s college band night on Friday reportedly overwhelmed the Cave and set up their own band night. One student, after watching his dad perform the drum solo of The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” said he “had literally no clue” that his dad played the drums. Evans students described being unable to sleep due to the bumping noise from downstairs, until 2 or 3 in the morning.
On Sunday afternoon, students reported their parents seeming especially irritable and tired after their long night. “They went harder than me this weekend,” one student said. Parents then caught flights or embarked on long drives home, their crazy college weekend coming to an end.