Do kids not get limos to the prom any more?

[CathScarlett]

My friend's 16 year old daughter's prom is this evening. He is dropping her and her friends off in his car. I said I was surprised she wasn't getting a limo. I'm told this is no longer in fashion, and that all the kids are taken by their parents these days, who get out of the car with them at their destination and take their photo.

Surely it hasn't changed that much in the 15 years since I had my prom? We would rather have died than have our parents get out of the car outside the venue and take our photos.

One group had limo balloons prom cake professional photographer champagne fake tan fake nails up dos professional makeup

Other got a dress did their own hair and makeup and left out the fake tan, some had lifts some got taxis

Does it matter?

Snarky about a light-hearted prom thread? FFS.

Saw (heard) a brilliantly tacky one in central Birmingham a couple of weeks ago. Red and black Range Rover bedecked with red ribbon, followed up with a motorbike entourage. The motorcyclists revved through the tunnels - it was ear-splitting and fabulous.

My mum drove me to mine with my best friend in the back. Would not let mum get out the car though. This was in 2007.

Got the night bus home with the majority of the year group from central London. Best bit of the whole thing in my memory.

Left school in 1993. We had sausage rolls, warm pop and a disco in a function room with nicotine stained 70's/early 80's wallpaper. Those were the days 😂

Limos are well naff now. DD just had her prom. Some kids turned up in their dads mid life crises sports cars but they were only admired by the other dads tbh.

It's bloody primaries who have limos now. Bloody primaries! 🙄

Well my school's prom a few weeks ago was a weird mix of limos, parents cars, a helicopter (?!!!) and several tractors! We have diverse economic backgrounds in our very rural location.

My prom was 10 years ago and some people did get limos but they were seen as tacky and going out of fashion then

We got dropped off by a friends dad but he had a really high spec Mercedes (cant remember which one now)

I am old enough that we didn't have a prom. I'm glad. I'd seen them on American films and they looked terrible. It's particularly stupid now that all those kids have to continue in education anyway. Like, what are you celebrating exactly?

My son's just had his prom. He went in an ice cream van.

Proms originate with debutante balls, which were around before the US was a twinkle in Britain's eye. Much like anything centuries old, it really doesn't have much connection to that anymore. US proms vary as widely as UK ones so it's very difficult to say all of them encourage anything in particular.

It's very rarely like it is on TV even in the US though... back then at least it was less about clothes which many of us including myself did reused (and no one used limos) and more which school's prom committee got the best location. Saying we're going to prom on a riverboat or at an art gallery was I guess our equivalent to the height of sophistication and bragging rights (followed swiftly by somehow wandering around the ciry and/or ending up at Denny's at 2am the next morning).

A bubble care would be novel.

Meant 'bubble CAR', not 'care'.

DD's prom was 5 years ago, it was in a lovely lakeside marquee in the grounds of a manor and nobody arrived in limo. Some go taxis but mostly it was just as you have described with parents dropping their DC's off and taking a few photos then leaving.

I left school in ‘03 and we didn’t have a prom. The Christmas dance was the big thing at my school, it was held in the cafeteria, one of the music teachers was in a covers band and they were the music.

The school started a prom in 2004 and I remember a group of us talking about how tragic it all was as they had gone to a posh hotel, hired their own limos etc. It was actually front page of the local paper,the headline was something like ‘American glamour comes to XXXXXX’! (This tells you a lot about where I grew up).

My own dd is now at primary school the the leavers had a limo for the end of year dance which, I think, the PTA paid for. It picked them all up, drove around for half an hour, took them to the dance and drove them around for another half hour before taking them home.

I really don't like the whole idea. It's tough on kids whose parents can't afford the whole shebang.

Ds' prom saw arrivals in everything from Ferraris and vintage Bentleys to campervans and buses. Best arrival by far was a normally very reserved girl on the back of a gigantic motorbike, with an escort of about 15 bikers alongside. Not a limo or Hummer in sight. Fair few dropped off by parents in the carpark round the corner too, if they wanted to avoid attention. Notable exception this year was tractors but in previous years there have been helicopters.

Rural school and vair naice rural venue.

No proms in my day (old gimmer).

DD's prom was 5 years ago, it was in a lovely lakeside marquee in the grounds of a manor

We went to the pub. On foot. They didn't have proms in the 90's. Thank god. I always feel bad for the kids who come from poorer families.

The girls in that article up thread look mid 20's! Don't teenagers go through the awkward crap looking stage anymore? So not fair, they should do their time goddamnit. Someone swop their Mac and Urban Decay for a Collection 2000 roll on lipgloss and some glitter spray from the market.

Sorry don't know what that quoted bit was doing there. I was probably going to ask something but got carried away thinking of strawberry 20/20 and dewberry body spray.

At my kids schools they walk / get the bus and get an Uber home.

Any form of limo type transport would cause mass cringing, and a lift from parents worse!
London, so parents driving kids to secondary is really rare.

The wanky transport thing is definitely over!

The thing is, the venue is always going to be a mid price hotel. With a rubbish buffet. & reluctant teachers propping up the bar (because venues won't take the booking unless school staff agree to ride shotgun).

It's all a bit crap, as parties go - my understanding from colleagues still in the U.K. is that a lot of kids are swerving it entirely & organising private barbecues or camping out in a long suffering parent's field.

Definitely turning up to prom in a stretch limo is done. If you attend at all, you stroll in from an Uber/dropped off by mum on her way to sainsbos.

Bollocks have proms got anything to do with debutante balls. As though girls in Sheffield ever got presented to the Queen and had a coming out season. And as though debs were ever about leaving school. It's American pish and as I said even more nonsensical now that all of them go back to school six weeks later.

We went to the pub. On foot.

We did too. 1992. A few teachers came along, and I just remember it feeling faintly uncomfortable.

My children aren't quite old enough yet (only year 9) but I have never heard of a prom. I left school in the 90s and nothing like that ever happened. Is it like a leaving party? With limos???! It sounds insane.

You have never heard of a prom?

No proms in my day. My kids went to their proms in our cars (we have a sports car)

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