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Prom on a school day?


SKL
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They have to attend 1st-3rd periods in order to be allowed into prom.

I'd hate to be working in a hair salon that day ....

Is this common?  Why not have it on a Saturday?

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I hope it's at least a Friday??? I can't imagine trying to teach kids the day after prom (I tried to play a piano recital the day after Prom-it's probably the single worst performance I've EVER done in my life-turns out I couldn't really play those pieces in my sleep....) 

 

I wonder if venue availability is a concern. Here, they don't do proms at the high school, but at various other venues, and I can only imagine scheduling is a mess. The same happens with graduation, but graduation usually doesn't have nearly as much decoration or clean up. 

 

 

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Here is isn't unusual for prom to be on a Friday night.  With block scheduling many seniors aren't taking many real classes by the time that prom rolls around.  It's probably harder for the juniors.  Some of the proms are on Saturdays, which I'm sure is much easier!  

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6 minutes ago, EKS said:

Our district used to have homecoming the night before the PSAT in the fall.  They probably still do.

Regional marching band competition, here. Our band director would tell us to go to the dance, and then would come through at about 11:00 and shoo any band members he saw home to go to bed. 

 

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Back in the 70’s our prom was on Friday night and we had to attend school that day.  Oldest grand had prom last Saturday and she kind of enjoyed having the whole day to do nothing but get ready. Not rushed at all. 
She’s on a block schedule and I think they have prom on Saturday because Friday would probably have too many kids distracted. You can’t afford to do that with an AP class on a block schedule!

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In my area, graduating seniors do not attend the last week or two of the school year.  In fact, graduation is held before the last day of classes.  Prom would be held between the time that seniors have completed their exams/coursework and the day of graduation.  Depending on the availability of the venue, the prom may be on a weeknight; this could impact non-seniors who are invited to the prom as a date.  

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They have the homecoming dances on Saturday.  You'd think Prom would deserve at least as much consideration.  (It's on a Friday.)

Our school's prom is only for seniors.  It's about 3 weeks before seniors' classes end.

It would make sense to have it during the free week between senior finals and graduation, right?  Or on any Saturday or even Sunday.  Or how about those late April state testing days, when the seniors were off because the state doesn't test senior classes?

Well, I'm that lazy parent who doesn't participate in the planning, so I don't have a say.  😛

It's a petty whine.  It just strikes me as weird.  Well, at least they are giving the kids a half day to get ready.  It's just, logistically, I don't know how that works with all the girls' hair.

 

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Around here third period would end by 11. That would leave 7-8 hours to get ready. I’d wager that most people get themselves ready without professional help and the rest made appointments ages ago. Even a full school day would leave at least three hours to be ready by six. It didn’t take me three hours to get ready for my wedding. 

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My kids have decided that Kid1 is going to do their hair, so it's not a crisis for us.  I do think a lot of girls would plan to get it done professionally on the day of, but maybe I'm wrong.

Just seems like there were better ways to do this.  But what do I know?

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5 hours ago, SKL said:

My kids have decided that Kid1 is going to do their hair, so it's not a crisis for us.  I do think a lot of girls would plan to get it done professionally on the day of, but maybe I'm wrong.

Just seems like there were better ways to do this.  But what do I know?

I agree that a lot of girls would get their hair done, but I think they would have scheduled an appointment well in advance and a professional is going to be pretty efficient.  I just can’t get my brain around needing a full day to get ready. Even when I had to get into “full drag” for stage lights (and I’m slow with heavy make-up) it never took more than two hours to get ready. Maybe three hours once you get dressed and drive to the venue. These kids today are all self-uneducated with YouTube and probably faster than my slow Gen X self. 
 

 

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1 hour ago, KungFuPanda said:

I agree that a lot of girls would get their hair done, but I think they would have scheduled an appointment well in advance and a professional is going to be pretty efficient.  I just can’t get my brain around needing a full day to get ready. Even when I had to get into “full drag” for stage lights (and I’m slow with heavy make-up) it never took more than two hours to get ready. Maybe three hours once you get dressed and drive to the venue. These kids today are all self-uneducated with YouTube and probably faster than my slow Gen X self.

It's not that I think they need the whole day to get ready.  It's that there will be hundreds of teens needing their hair done on Friday afternoon ... and there aren't that many stylists in our area.

I think a lot of kids' prep time will also be dragged out by the whole flowers, photos, getting together with friends, etc. before heading off to the dinner.

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8 hours ago, SKL said:

It's not that I think they need the whole day to get ready.  It's that there will be hundreds of teens needing their hair done on Friday afternoon ... and there aren't that many stylists in our area.

I think a lot of kids' prep time will also be dragged out by the whole flowers, photos, getting together with friends, etc. before heading off to the dinner.

Oh, I see. I didn’t think of areas with not enough stylists to go around. 

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My daughters had prom on a Friday. You didn't want to be anywhere NEAR the school when 3rd period let out ..... everyone would be rushing out. Some girls would show up with curlers in their hair!

It did cause a lot of angst - Saturdays would be better

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On 5/4/2024 at 6:59 PM, KungFuPanda said:

I just can’t get my brain around needing a full day to get ready. Even when I had to get into “full drag” for stage lights (and I’m slow with heavy make-up) it never took more than two hours to get ready. Maybe three hours once you get dressed and drive to the venue. These kids today are all self-uneducated with YouTube and probably faster than my slow Gen X self. 

But also these are teenage girls; they need a whole day. There is time needed for beauty sleep, re-doing stuff, drama, feeling bad, feeling good, pictures (all the pictures in all the different combination of people), prepping post prom shenanigans, etc. The getting make-up, hair done and dressed.

Joking but not completely. 

Plus, let's be completely realistic the teens who care about prom aren't learning anything between first and third period before prom anyways. 

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Well now I hear that they aren't even having actual classes in periods 1-3.  Apparently their attendance is required to meet government attendance targets.  The school is going to put on some special program and early lunch for the seniors and then send them off.

BUT!  Apparently I have to sign a paper to allow them to leave school when the school dismisses them!?

I am so looking forward to being done with these dumb rules.

 

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2 hours ago, Clarita said:

But also these are teenage girls; they need a whole day. There is time needed for beauty sleep, re-doing stuff, drama, feeling bad, feeling good, pictures (all the pictures in all the different combination of people), prepping post prom shenanigans, etc. The getting make-up, hair done and dressed.

Joking but not completely. 

Plus, let's be completely realistic the teens who care about prom aren't learning anything between first and third period before prom anyways. 

You're right.  I forgot about the prepping post prom shenanigans part.  My kids want to have a bonfire or something.  I'm sure this will involve a ton of texting and facetiming on the day of....

And re-doing stuff.  My kid who styles hair is also OCD for real.  I'm already stressing over the way this is gonna go.  😛  Not that having the additional 3 hours would fix that.

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On 5/4/2024 at 1:34 PM, KungFuPanda said:

Around here third period would end by 11. That would leave 7-8 hours to get ready. I’d wager that most people get themselves ready without professional help and the rest made appointments ages ago. Even a full school day would leave at least three hours to be ready by six. It didn’t take me three hours to get ready for my wedding. 

Two of my girls just went to Prom. The dance started at 7. The girls were on the hockey rink until 5:00. 5-minute drive home. By 6 they had showered, dressed, finished their hair and were heading out to the waiting limo (a friend's dh rented it).

3 hours should be more than enough time to get ready for a dance - even 2 hours would not be rushed (imo).

Also, funny story: One of my girls really did not want to wear a dress but grudgingly gave in. As she was lifting the dress to walk up some stairs for photos, I noticed she had kept her pants on under the dress. And of course she and her sister wore their VANS. lol

I love this picture - from holding their own with the big boys on the hockey rink to this. They clean up nicely (even with pants under the dress). 🙂 


 

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Fun to see other girls wearing sneakers. This is our oldest grand- my daughter embroidered her shoes w a spider and web…some kind of Gwen Stacy tribute. 
Question- dgd had to actually bring her dress to school to have it approved. It’s a public school. Is this common now?  I was surprised. 

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12 minutes ago, Annie G said:

Question- dgd had to actually bring her dress to school to have it approved. It’s a public school. Is this common now?  I was surprised.

I have not heard of this.  Wouldn't this be a logistical nightmare?  And what if the school person doesn't like the dress?  The girl takes it back for a refund and buys something else at the last minute?  It doesn't sound well thought-through.  My 16yo self would have boycotted.  😛

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, SKL said:

I have not heard of this.  Wouldn't this be a logistical nightmare?  And what if the school person doesn't like the dress?  The girl takes it back for a refund and buys something else at the last minute?  It doesn't sound well thought-through.  My 16yo self would have boycotted.  😛

Yeah, I wasn’t happy when I heard it. Leaving aside the logistics of finding another dress, why is it ok for the admin to judge a girl like that? Anna’s dress would look very different on a girl w another body type. Does that mean a busty girl has to wear frumpy dresses? Ugh. 
  This news came a couple days after her sister, a 9th grader, was pulled out of class to pee in a cup for drug testing because she runs track.  Sure, it’s ‘random’ but even Sophie’s teachers have commented that it appears they only randomly pull kids who are known as good kids.  And they pulled her out DURING a test in one of her AP classes. It really bothered her. 
 

ETA: It bothers me that dgd and Dd didn’t bat an eyelash about the dress needing approval. I think that bothered me more than the school’s involvement, tbh. 

Edited by Annie G
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It would never have occurred to me that it would be an issue to have prom on a Friday, when high schools are usually dismissed 4-6 hours before dances start. Maybe that's because if I got my hair done more than a couple of hours before an event, it would be a disaster? (Or because my wedding is the only time I've ever paid someone to style my hair.)

I think it's one thing for an administration to set blanket rules on attire (e.g., no strapless dresses, no sweatpants, no heels above an inch) and another thing entirely to make students bring a dress in for inspection in advance. (Where is one supposed to keep a long dress the rest of the day?? What happens to the student whose dress won't arrive by mail or be finished at the tailor's until a couple of days before?)

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On 5/7/2024 at 12:48 PM, Faith-manor said:

I gotta say, ya'll are making me glad that our dd politely refused an invite to prom. From the expense to all of the administrative nonsense, I am thrilled we didn't go through that. 

I would agree...if the cost and energy/time was over the top. But the Prom experience can be had for literally next to nothing. Dd's red dress cost $6 at a thrift store. She did her own hair. Wore only mascara (which she bought herself). No dinner beforehand save for grabbing leftovers from the fridge. 🙂 The limo was a gift from one of the dads - we would have never, never spent $ on such a thing. We're all about the $20 and under Prom.

Oh, and the boys who went with our girls spent $20 or less on their entire outfit: shirt, tie, jacket, pants and shoes. All Nordstrom, GAP and some fancy Italian brand I'd never heard of. Thrift stores are awesome!


 

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6 hours ago, BakersDozen said:

I would agree...if the cost and energy/time was over the top. But the Prom experience can be had for literally next to nothing. Dd's red dress cost $6 at a thrift store. She did her own hair. Wore only mascara (which she bought herself). No dinner beforehand save for grabbing leftovers from the fridge. 🙂 The limo was a gift from one of the dads - we would have never, never spent $ on such a thing. We're all about the $20 and under Prom.

Oh, and the boys who went with our girls spent $20 or less on their entire outfit: shirt, tie, jacket, pants and shoes. All Nordstrom, GAP and some fancy Italian brand I'd never heard of. Thrift stores are awesome!


 

Sounds good. What did tickets to prom cost? The schools in my county charge $50 per person. A lot of kids are starting to avoid prom, and instead, host small private parties in homes.

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