My oldest son graduated from high school this spring and we had one of those big old traditional open houses with a tent and tables and a slushy machine. It was a nice gathering of 200+ family, friends, neighbors, teachers, coaches, people I don’t recall ever meeting, kids looking for a free desert, bums looking for a free drink, etc.
The whole idea of an open house is so your kid can get cash to start off their life in the ‘real’ world. Invite as many people as you can. Update and clean your house for a year. Decide on a menu that won’t break your bank account, but will impress all the other moms in attendance who are also throwing open houses. Put up a lot of pictures and awards.
Side note: My wife won the 2015 Open House competition. It wasn’t an unanimous vote, but she pretty much ran away with it. Also, she is a front runner for 2016 and my middle son’s graduation open house. We’re Sackett’s, we only get bigger and better! I’m already having the back-2-back Open House Champs shirts printed up! #Confidence
We got lucky. His real world consists of a college scholarship to play baseball. The big expenses like tuition and books will be paid for, he has to pick up some living expenses, but his hard work paid off. He now feels what it’s like to have more than a few hundred dollars in his bank account. Which basically means he eats out almost every meal. He’s ghetto rich.
One really cool thing happened from having the open house. Our son had to write thank you notes to all those who came, and all those who sent cards and cash. He was lucky to have to write a ton of thank yous!
I voted on just getting the preprinted Thank You notes. I bet half of the thank you notes we received of were this variety. Thanks for coming. I’m so grateful! Here’s a post card that was preprinted and my mom addressed the envelope. I probably would have went with a 10% off your next appetizer at Applebee’s or something to make it more special, but again, Sackett’s go big!
My wife is a traditionalist, he was going to be hand writing his notes.
It took some time to get them done, but to his credit, he really put in some time and thought into writing these notes. I’ve heard from so many people congratulating me on his thank you notes! Most commented on how much detail he added, and how he made it personal to them specifically. That definitely makes us proud parents!
The entire experience just reminds me of how important it is to sometimes take the time to write a note out by hand. In our world of messaging and emails, it just gets so easy to tune out so many of these communications. Rarely, does a handwritten note get tuned out. Remember that kids when you go looking for a job. Your resume might get eaten up by an ATS, but most handwritten notes and cards get passed on directly to decision makers without being opened by a gatekeeper!