who pays for prom?

[kymom99]

High school minors rent houses and go away alone for a weekend? I must be sheltered.

 

[mjkacmom]

Believe me it is just as costly for the boys if not more. To rent a tux here it is like $150. I bought my sons tux for $125, then there is the tie and vest, shoes and mens are not cheap, haircut if needed, girls flowers are way more costly than the boys, dinner and tickets if he is paying. My son's date bought her dress second hand for $25 and it was beautiful, paid for an updo, and did her own nails. Believe me it was many times that cost for my son.

It really depends. For her junior formal, dd spent $5 on a thrift shop dress, did her hair and makeup. For her prom, dress was $400, hair and makeup $150, nails $30. Ds wore black slacks, his own shoes, shirt, and tie, plus a $5 thrift shop jacket to a friends junior formal, but his rental suit for his own this year was $75. Boys get a break not dealing with hair, makeup, nails, jewelry, and shoes.

 

[mjkacmom]

High school minors rent houses and go away alone for a weekend? I must be sheltered.

We did it 30 years ago. Three months after prom, these kids are off to college. The people renting the houses have a pretty good system involving high deductibles and parent contracts. A group trashed a house two years ago, and I'm sure they had to pay dearly. It's rare, though.

 

[JanaDee]

Go away for the weekend? What do you mean?

Who allows their 15 or 16 year old to "go away" for the weekend with a boyfriend/girlfriend unsupervised? Over my dead body.

 

[mjkacmom]

Who allows their 15 or 16 year old to "go away" for the weekend with a boyfriend/girlfriend unsupervised? Over my dead body.

We are talking seniors in high school, some juniors, and I've never heard of any sophomores going. It's the senior prom! Those that take non-seniors to the prom usually go without them.

 

[3MFamily]

Kids here rent hotel rooms. Well, the parents do for kids.

AP exams were the weekend of prom this year so DD opted to eat out after prom and friends slept over at our house with the understanding that they were going to study Sunday. Poor planning or genius by the school, either way, kept costs down!

Junior year the kids were too young to drive to the city, so they rented a limo (more $$, a parent coordinated and collected evenly split fare). It made for a nice pre prom gathering to take pictures with all the parents at our house and a safe post prom hang out. Parents contributed to the potluck (pizza, ice cream sundaes with all the toppings, etc...) and there was space enough for them to lounge around and eat. Boys left, girls slept over.

 

[JanaDee]

We are talking seniors in high school, some juniors, and I've never heard of any sophomores going. It's the senior prom! Those that take non-seniors to the prom usually go without them.

Our Prom is sponsored by the junior class and is open to Freshmen through Seniors. Even if it would be Seniors only, it wouldn't be happening on my watch.

 

[elaine amj]

my parents let a small group of my friends and I go away for a weekend after high school. It was about 8 of us crammed in one hotel room about 4 hours away. We had an amazing time.

I expect to allow my own kids to travel with their friends without a chaperone (with one is of course preferred) after they finish high school. Like someone else mentioned, many will move into college dorms without chaperones a scant 3 months later.

I doubt I will allow my kids to travel without some kind of chaperone until the end of high school though. 15/16 would be too young.

 

[Shughart]

I've only ever gone with a boyfriend, but he paid for tickets. We each bought each other the traditional flower to wear and we paid for our own attire. I used to go to a fancy HS where prom was held in a downtown hotel, with dinner and then you could go on the party boat. Party boat was like midnight to 5 am. It was chaperoned. You were not allowed to even step foot inside if you weren't a junior or senior. It was expensive as heck, but I moved about 6 months before jr prom. We always heard wild rumors about the party boat though.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

We did it 30 years ago. Three months after prom, these kids are off to college. The people renting the houses have a pretty good system involving high deductibles and parent contracts. A group trashed a house two years ago, and I'm sure they had to pay dearly. It's rare, though.

At DS's all boys school they don't get hotel rooms or go away after prom (which is a joint venture with the girls school). After graduation everyone does Beach Week. Most kids get houses in the Carolinas, but since most beach houses won't rent to 18 year olds there is a parent chaperone in each house. DS is going with a group of 19 boys and one dad. A group of 18 girls and one mom are renting the house next door. The chaperones had a meeting with all the parents about costs, rules, etc. The idea is for them to all have a fun, safe time after graduation.

 

[kymom99]

My nephew went on a cruise after graduation with several parent chaperones.

 

[chartle]

Speaking of prom costs. Wonder how much this cost?

Saw it walking home after going out for dinner last night. Strong horses, they just came up a very steep hill.

Note we live in a lower middle income area. This is a major splurge.

 

[chartle]

Also when did people start saying "are you going to prom" vs "are you going to the prom"? It's a noun not a verb and a specific event not like saying "are you going to school".

 

[mjkacmom]

My nephew went on a cruise after graduation with several parent chaperones.

My sister and her friends went to Cancun, no chaperones.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

Actually, my son has gone/is going to stranger's proms on blind dates twice! He goes to an all boys school. His prom is a joint prom with the sister all girls school. He has gone to his own prom twice. This year he took a good friend. He paid for dinner, and she paid for prom tickets. He was going to pay for everything b/c he asked her, but she wanted to split it.

His junior year, a mom at another all girls school contacted a mom at DS's school and asked if a group of boys would be willing to take a group of senior girls who didn't have dates to their prom. The boys said yes, met the girls for pictures, decided then and there who would go with whom, and off they went. The prom included a sit down dinner and dance. Afterwards they all went back to one girl's house for pizza and a movie. DS said it was a blast, and he's still friends with that group of girls. In that case, he rented a tux and paid for a flower, but she paid for the prom & dinner tickets.

Next week, DS will double date with one of his best friends who moved 3 hours away. Best friend asked DS to take his girlfriend's best friend b/c she didn't have a date. DS is really looking forward to it. He'll rent the tux and pay for the flower. His date will pay for the tickets. Not sure about dinner. DS is a gentleman and knows how to be a good date. And he looks so handsome in a tuxedo. His blind date is a lucky girl.

You can be sure there are no more "blind" dates anymore now that there is social media. These kids check each other out on twitter, facebook, instagram and snapchat most likely before they agree to go with anyone!

 

[lovin'fl]

DS is at prom right now. We just have senior prom at our school. Tickets were $80 each and DS paid for his and his date's (she is also a senior at the same school). They have a prom breakfast after the prom for like midnight to 2am at the school. It's to keep kids from partying it up at hotels and whatnot. They give away nice prizes at prom breakfast. Most kids go. I would not rent a hotel room or any such thing for my DS. Nope! And cost, by the way, was way too much...I gave him $500 for everything and he had to pay any excess of that with his own $$$ (he bought a suit as opposed to renting a tux so I think his total cost came to about $700). I will do the same for my twin DDs (sophomores).

 

[kymom99]

My sister and her friends went to Cancun, no chaperones.

My niece went to Myrtle Beach after graduation without chaperones and my sister went to Florida way back in the 70s. I'm not saying it isn't done, I'm just saying sometimes people go with chaperones, which would be much safer in my opinion.

 

[Lavitz]

Interesting read here, I felt like I was watching a documentary from the Discovery Channel since I'm from Canada and most of this is new to me.

I'm not sure what a junior prom is, I'm guessing it's like our semi-formal. We have a semi-formal open to everyone half way through the year, and a formal (prom) at the end of the year for the graduating class (and anyone younger that is invited as a date). Usually it's the guys who pay or each buy their own ticket, no rule really about this though really. This also goes for the limo. And not being close to any beaches (Toronto), one person in each group of friends was responsible for booking a hotel room themselves for an after party. Then you'd spend the entire night hopping around other people's after parties until you ran out of steam.

 

[Laura66]

Also when did people start saying "are you going to prom" vs "are you going to the prom"? It's a noun not a verb and a specific event not like saying "are you going to school".

I am 48 - we were saying that since I was in high school?
This bothers you?

 

[chartle]

I am 48 - we were saying that since I was in high school?
This bothers you?

Yes sort of. I guess it only started to creep into our area a few years ago.

It just doesn't sound correct. Like saying "I'm going to Super Bowl". Though I guess a better example is saying "I'm going to dance" (verb) which means some time in the future I'm going to partake in the activity of dancing vs "I'm going to the dance" (noun) which means I'm going to a specific event where there will be dancing among other things.

I'll try to find some more sources but the best I can find is Wikipedia and it too says it's a noun and needs an article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prom#Terminology

It's not like I obsess over it, just wondering how this incorrect usage became part of normal speech.