College Parents Party Harder Than Students at Family Weekend

My wife and I flew down to visit my son at the University of Tennessee this past weekend. We hadn’t seen him since we dropped him off on August 13, by far the longest we’ve ever gone without seeing one of our kids.

This empty nest thing has been an adjustment for sure, and we were eagerly awaiting a weekend to create some new family memories.

Experiencing SEC Football in Knoxville

We brought along my mom, my sister and my niece so they could experience the magic of an SEC college football game. We arrived at 10 a.m. for the 12:45 p.m. kickoff, ready for tailgating. Shockingly, the crowd had already been going strong for at least an hour or two before we got there.

The fraternity houses were rocking – and not just with students. Parents were right in the mix, sometimes even wilder than the kids.

Parents' Weekend Turns into a Party

That enthusiasm didn’t stop when the game began. Later that night, every Knoxville hotspot had lines stretching around the block, packed with parents proudly sporting Tennessee orange. Many wore pins and stickers identifying them as fraternity or sorority parents, and they weren’t shy about joining in the fun.

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A Generational Shift in College Parenting

As a former fraternity member myself, this is a phenomenon I don’t remember happening when I was an undergrad. There is no way I would have partied with my parents on parents weekend.

Things have certainly changed. With Gen X now stepping into the role of college parents, it seems they’re just as eager to soak up the campus life as their kids.