Do you visit your d'c' when they're away at uni?

[AlwaysFreezing]

Ds is off to uni in September. To a new city a couple of hours away.

I've visited the city with him, had a fab time. Dh couldn't come and so we were discussing going to visit him once he'd settled in, maybe some early Christmas shopping type thing. The theoretical plan is that we'd stay in a hotel, take ds out for lunch, maybe a beer, maybe top up his groceries and then leave him to it while we did our own thing. Unless he wanted to do something specific, or show us around his new city etc.

Then I wondered how common this is? Are we weirdos for wanting to?

I'm not saying every weekend or anything totally overbearing, just a couple of times a year. I can't remember if anyone's parents visited when I was at uni, and I stayed in my home town for uni, so no personal experience.

Obviously we'd also ask ds! Not just turn up.

Interested to know whether others do this? Thanks.

Yes completely normal

My parents dropped us at the start of the year, and picked us up at the end of the year.
Dh's parents dropped him and picked him up every term and visited one Saturday in term and took him out for a meal.

Neither is right or wrong. Dh's parents were far closer than mine which made a difference.

With my dc, #1 would have loved us to take and drop and come and visit, but she was 6 hours away by car. We agreed on beginning and end of year, and we would visit once for a weekend. Unfortunately this ended up being only once - we did it in year 1, year 2 was lockdown, and year 3 we were about to go when she phoned to say she had covid.
#2 told us as she left that we weren't to visit mid-term and she wasn't sure she would come home for most of the holidays.... I think I saw her 6 times over the first term, although 2 of them were her coming home for specific events with friends, one was her discovering there were no trains back to uni after a night out in London so coming home instead, and twice was her "desperately needing" something urgently that was far cheaper to drive down than post. And the last time was she decided that it was easier to drop in on us and get a lift back... She did come home for holidays too. I don't think we're as terrible as she thought we were. At least we're a convenient bed and breakfast and food she doesn't have to cook/pay for. 🤣

I'd agree with this.

I'd see your dc saying come and have dinner with me at College, lovely.
But come and have a meal with other parents just feels a bit... school-ish maybe.

Mind you I'm probably associating it with the "parent lunches" that they had at juniors that I was always temped to turn up with a big bottle of cola, hand it out to as many kids as possible and hopefully get either it banned or me banned. It was a dreadful idea, nearly as dreadful as the lunch we got to eat.

We got invited to a first year parents dinner at son's Cambridge college. It was really lovely to meet his friends and their parents. Was a one-off though, deliberately mixing with other parents, until his graduation, though we did visit mid term once or twice, or stay over when picking him up, to go to church with him, or go punting or whatever. He booked a punt the day after his graduation to take us out a final time, though he's been back to visit at least once a term and usually has the alumni punt booked!

Don’t think it’s odd at all . We visit ours about twice a year mid term. They don’t come home at all during term time and we love the city and the local area. They like being taken out for food and showing off the city to us but we generally fit in around if they are free . I Wouldn’t attend formals though but each to their own