Egape = Electronic Love: Parental Prom Wisdom

I've been through five proms in six years, and here’s what I’ve learned as the parent of both a boy and a girl:

1. It’s much easier to send a son to the prom than a daughter. Pretty much all Ben ever needed was money and some very basic guidelines… “Get a tux (preferably a classy one), make reservations for dinner somewhere without a drive-through, buy your date a flower (extra points if it complements her dress), drive very carefully, and treat her like a princess.”

Hannah, on the other hand, just needed money, and a lot of it. Her list included: THE dress, shoes, handbag, jewelry, hair, hair accessories, makeup, manicure, pedicure, waxing, tanning, and undoubtedly some other essentials I’ve forgotten. I also tried to share some parental wisdom with her, of course, but it just got lost in the pre-prom madness. In retrospect, I should have picked my time more carefully, like the previous October.

2. When it comes to prom attire, resistance is futile. I thought Ben’s first tux made him look like a gangster, but it was the one he was determined to wear, and wear it he did. The dress Hannah wore this year was the very first one she picked out online, but I wasn’t so sure. So we ordered three others, none of which worked, and ended up scrambling to get the first dress here and altered the day before the big night. I could have saved myself a lot of hassle and shipping charges if I’d just gotten with Hannah’s program in the beginning.

3. The “official” pictures taken at the prom are a waste of money, but you can’t take too many pre-prom photos. There were 24 kids (that's right, 24) in Hannah’s prom group this time, and I juggled two cameras for over an hour to make sure we had pictures of every possible combination, including dates, friends, guys only, girls only, short dresses, long dresses, pale dresses, and sharp tuxedos, just to name a few. And there was a plethora of backgrounds to choose from as well. So naturally we posed in front of all of them, including the fountain, the gazebo, trees, flowering shrubs, the inn, and Main Street. When it was all, over my index finger was cramping and I felt qualified to add the title,“Paparazzi” to my resume.

4. If your child attends both their Junior and Senior proms, the first one will be “perfect,” but the second one will be more fun.

5. You will worry about them until they come home or call you and say they’re safely wherever it is they’re spending the night. Of course, that holds true anytime teenagers are out and about, but it’s never truer than on prom night (and maybe graduation).

6. Finally, as you watch your children and their friends get dressed up like the Rockefellers and drive off into the sunset, recognize that you’ve just had a magical glimpse into the not so distant future. Add it to your collection of precious memories, no matter how many pictures you took, and treasure it as the gift from God that it is.