My son will be 18 on Thanksgiving Day, any suggestions on what I could do for him?

Question

My son has finally made it to the big day, and I am so proud of him, I was a teenager when I had him, and He has been such a joy to me, although we have had our problems,as every parent has, when he was 15 2weeks from being 16, with me not knowing he started skipping school, did it for almost a month, I got the letter in the mail to go to court for it long story short he ended up quitting school, after that year was over he found out quitting was not going to get him anywhere so he decided to start school again the following school year, and he is doing so well now, he even made the national honors society, and Im so darn proud of him, and I tell him all the time, so In honor of him turning 18 and getting honors I want to do something special, but truth be told I dont have much money to spend, any suggestions

Answer 1

When my son turned 18, I spent about a week writing down memories I had of him. I asked his dad, brother and aunts to write something for him also and I put them all together in a memory book.
He didn't make a big deal out of it. Looked at it for a minute, said thanks and put it away.
He's almost 20 now and he's been living on his own for a year and a few weeks ago, I was visiting his apartment. I did his laundry and was putting clothes away and noticed the memory book by his bed. It looked well read and he'd scribbled notes of his own memories about the stories we'd given him and put them inside the book. I was stunned. I hadn't thought it had meant much to him but it turns out, that's his favorite gift ever. He said it keeps him from being lonely now that he's away from us.

We're the kind of family who tells each other "I love you" and "I'm proud of you" a lot but there's something about writing it down :)

If you'd like to put something like this together. Start with how you felt when you got pregnant. Talk about his day of birth and then start writing down all the funny/sweet/sad stories that have made him the man he is now.
I put mine into a scrap book and passed on a lot of photos to him from his childhood. (I had them copied at a photo place)

The day my son turned 18 was also the day I gave him my dad's ring that I'd been saving for him until he was old enough.

Our family also did a memory book for my mom-in-law last year. That one took 6 months of planning because it had stories in it from so many people. We though we'd done it for her but in the time since we gave it to her, that book is brought out at every family gathering and we relive the stories we all wrote and the memories that we shared. I've been hinting that someone will make one for me on my next milestone birthday. :)

Congratulations on parenting your wonderful son to manhood. It sounds like one of his biggest blessings was a supportive and loving parent!

Answer 2

Money = Bull cr@p
it doesnt have to be money, you could just show him more pride and spend with him a very good day making a good meal and going out to a special place or whatever, your son at least has a hobby, ie skateboarding, try going to local sport shops and getting good quality things with low prices and enjoy your day

Answer 3

I favor i might want to help out. attempt invited friends of all of your little ones and kinfolk to a normal party you may make and create some wonder for him and locate sometime to speak with about what is going on.

Answer 4

awww i'm glad he was able to make you pround :0) he deffinetly deserves a nice party for all this. you should throw a party on wednesday or something and invite all his friends. have a big suprise party!

Answer 5

if you live close to NYC send him there for the parade on thanksgiving