Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Advice for parents from a top official

Hatchet File Photo by Nicole Radivilov | Hatchet Staff Photographer
Hatchet File Photo by Nicole Radivilov | Hatchet Staff Photographer

If you’re a freshman, you might be nervous about welcoming your parents to campus for the first time. And for parents, parents’ weekend is an exciting but stressful time to see what your son or daughter has been up to the past two months.

We asked Vice President for External Relations Lorraine Voles to give her best advice to parents. Voles has a daughter who is a junior at New York University and a son who is a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

She had the following to say:

Don’t expect that your kids will be 100 percent happy. This may be the first opportunity they have to admit to being a little homesick, or that they are struggling with the workload or that they are not getting along with a roommate. My advice is to listen, be positive and do not try to solve every problem for them.

Don’t expect your kids to spend every second of parents’ weekend with you.

Do expect to take your son or daughter out to dinner with their friends. They will go out again after you drop them off.

Don’t scrub their bathrooms. Don’t even go in their bathroom.

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