One of the most disheartening cancellations caused by the spread and danger of COVID-19 was the cancellation of WSU’s Mom’s Weekend for the 2020 school year. This disrupted the travel plans of thousands of moms and families that left them all wondering how WSU will move forward with other events. One way to solve this issue is to turn next semesters Dad’s Weekend into a Parent’s Weekend that caters to both moms and dads.

“I think my mom was very understanding in the circumstances of the whole pandemic; trying to keep everyone safe and flattening the curve, but she was also really disappointed; knowing she already had hotel arrangements; she was really looking forward to coming back to Pullman,” said Tyler Pollock, a sophomore microbiology major.

However, if WSU changed this year’s Dad’s Weekend into a Parent’s Weekend, this could encourage moms who originally planned to visit this April to travel to Pullman instead for the weekend of Oct. 10, during which WSU has scheduled this year’s Dad’s Weekend.

In fact, a common practice for many families, particularly during Dad’s Weekend, is to just bring the entire family to visit their student anyways, and this is the perfect reason to rebrand the weekend as a parent’s weekend.

While many dads do come down to Pullman alone, there are no sort of restrictions placed upon other family members. Especially for families that utilize the tailgating lots near Martin Stadium, Dad’s Weekend can often become a family affair.

WSU even explicitly encouraged moms, as well as other family members, to visit for this year’s Dad’s Weekend so that WSU students may share the weekend with their whole families.

“I know for Dad’s Weekend, my dad can’t come up for that so if we could make it a Parent’s Weekend then I know I’d have my mom and I wouldn’t spend all day in my dorm doing nothing while everyone is with their dad,” said Anna McDonald, a freshman biology major.

Both McDonald and her mother were disappointed to miss out on what would have been their first WSU Mom’s Weekend.

Furthermore, one of the most popular events that was planned for this year’s Mom’s Weekend was a performance by Macklemore. This performance, set to be held in Beasley Coliseum, was originally scheduled for April 4th before being cancelled due to COVID-19. However, it has been officially rescheduled for Friday, October 9th of this year, which conveniently is the Friday of Dad’s Weekend.

All the current tickets purchased for the performance will remain honored, and refunds being available until Monday, April 27th. This provides strong incentive for Coug moms to travel to Pullman for this weekend, as their tickets had already been purchased for the original date.

“For all the moms out there one of the biggest issues is the Macklemore concert. Half of them are happy it got rescheduled but for the moms who wanted to go, they can’t get hotel rooms now,” said Wendy Peloquin, mother of Clay Peloquin, a sophomore computer science major. “Making it a family weekend, the moms would have a place to stay. I think for this year, it’s kinda like the whole university and everybody is pulling together.”

These family members would be sharing the same rooms during the weekend, so everyone would have a place to stay still. Also having so many people in town would be a welcome Pullman’s local economy.

An additional benefit of turning Dad’s Weekend 2020 into Parents’ Weekend 2020 would be that Coug moms could experience a Cougar Football Saturday during a weekend designed around catering to their visit and experience.

“I would enjoy it,” said Erica Pollock, mother of Pollock. “The students enjoy the games and now they can enjoy it with their moms, because we don’t usually get to experience it.”

She also said that she typically attends both Mom’s and Dad’s Weekends, and had a great time attending her first Cougar Football Saturday during Dad’s Weekend 2019.

Overall, while the WSU community is saddened to have had this year’s Mom’s Weekend cancelled due to the spread of COVID-19, changing this year’s scheduled Dad’s Weekend into a Parent’s Weekend could allow moms and dads alike to experience a fun-filled weekend while visiting their kids at WSU.