Ever been to a prom walk-in? The event in which seniors get their names announced and then walk in to their proms on a red carpet...behind ropes? While their sad, desperate middle-aged parents play the part of sad, desperate middle-aged paparazzi at the Academy Awards? And did it creep you out?
Well, it did me. Don't get me wrong...I love kids. I cherish them. But I draw the line at worshipping them. Kids getting dressed up is always cool, and parents who pay for the prom dresses have an understandable wish to take their pictures when they're all dressed up. But the fictive environment of the walk-in is something else: kids pretending to be celebrities, being "famous" for...being famous? It's not just that it's a weird parody of an increasingly weird celebrity culture (by the way, you can now rent fake paparazzi for special occasions, people you can pay to shout your name, jostle you and beg for your photo). It's also the intrusiveness of adults in what should be an event for the kids themselves.
I haven't seen, or done, the research about whether kids themselves like the walk-in. Many kids I talk to look forward to it ahead of time, but afterwards say that it made the entire prom seem kind of lame; some just walk in to the prom and then walk back out because the walk-in is the real event. At eighteen, they learn that dancing, and sharing a last school event together, and all the naughty behavior planned for later, all pale in comparison to faux adulation.
I have no idea whether the prom walk-in is a widespread American thing or some local aberration. I don't know if it is increasing or decreasing (although where I live I'm pretty sure it's increasing in the same way that dandelions or boils increase). So, if this thing is just limited to New England, or western New England, or semi-rural western New England, just read this post as if it were an article in National Geographic. But if it's happening out your way, you'll know it all too well.
What is to be done? Well, for parents, how about getting a life? It's not your prom, it's their prom. If you want a special event, send your kid off to his prom and crack a bottle of champagne for yourselves at home. You want a party, make your own party. Don't crash somebody else's.
