Southern Belle Primer Question

[JennRN]

Hey all-well, as a good Southern girl, I have my primer, but I have a question about it!!
In the section on rushing and sororities in the South, it told a story about moms who send gifts to sororities right before their daughters go through rush, with notes like, Remember my daughter so-and-so.
So, my question is thus-having never gone through a big Southern rush-do moms do this? Send gifts/flowers/food to chapters her daughter will be rushing? Is this common?

[PreppyGirl]

I've heard of chapters getting food and gifts to "remember" PNMs, but we've never had any at our chapter (which is at a fairly competitive--not LSU competitive, but there are def. pnms who have been prepping for YEARS-- Southern school). As far as I know, I think that it is highly discouraged...I actually think that I've seen papers where it says that alumnae are prohibited from sending gifts to chapters on behalf of pnms.

[honeychile]

I do believe that the custom has been banned on most campuses. However, it hasn't stopped Mama's from making a very nice donation to the chapter just prior to recruitment, or from visiting the campus with her daughter in tow during the daughter's senior year in high school - with goodies, of course!

[breathesgelatin]

It happens. You get flowers to decorate the house from members of prominent alums who know that someone is going through recruitment. These days, I think it'd be pretty risky to enclose a letter WITH the flowers... but yeah.

[AOIIalum]

I could imagine it would probably be a little risky to include a letter with the flowers. But, if you've been a good alumna and already written the appropriate rec, sending flowers with a signed florist card probably wouldn't hurt.

[honeychile]

Jenn, you might enjoy this site: http://forums.greekchat.com/gcforums...Belle+Handbook

[OleMissGlitter]

When I went through rush at Ole Miss my mother's best friend sent flowers with a card to a GLO, they asked me back to all three rounds......

I know last year before rush we received a huge gift basket from a PNM's mother, just asking us to "remember" her daughter even though the mother wasn't a member of AOII.....

Ole Miss Recruitment...expect the unexpected!

[AOII_LB93]

Originally posted by OleMissGlitter
When I went through rush at Ole Miss my mother's best friend sent flowers with a card to a GLO, they asked me back to all three rounds......

I know last year before rush we received a huge gift basket from a PNM's mother, just asking us to "remember" her daughter even though the mother wasn't a member of AOII.....

Ole Miss Recruitment...expect the unexpected!

That just seems so presumptuous of the mother, but then what do I know? I rushed at CSULB, where we hardly ever see recs (though it's starting to happen, more mom's are sending their daughters through recruitment I guess), and less than 3% of the campus is greek.

At least the president of the university is pro-greek!

[RoseNWhiteLion]

Wow. This just floors me. I guess it jsut proves how much of a Yankee I am!

First off, I had no idea girls had primers....don't even know what's in them. But anyway, to the question at hand.

Wouldn't this be WAY illegal??? I dunno, I just know how tight we are about the sororities' behavior towards the girls (And come to thinkn of it, I never heard of any rules regarding NM's behavior or NM's MOTHERS' behavior towards the sorority......) but I would assume that there would be some sort of rule discouraging that, wouldn't there? Just seems rather unfair to me.

But hey, what do I know?

Are there any mothers or alumnae out there that can clarify??

[33girl]

Originally posted by RoseNWhiteLion
First off, I had no idea girls had primers....don't even know what's in them. But anyway, to the question at hand.

The Southern Belle Primer is a humorous book that looks at several aspects of the South. There is a large section on sorority life. It is nothing that the sororities or schools issue.

[Munchkin03]

Originally posted by RoseNWhiteLion


First off, I had no idea girls had primers....don't even know what's in them. But anyway, to the question at hand.

The Southern Belle Primer, like 33 said, is a humorous look at life within a small group of Southern females. Some people on GC, however, tend to take it a little too seriously, and have never heard of a "parody." If you have the opportunity to read it, it's funny, but not to be taken literally.

Basically, if you're reading the Primer as if it's the Bible and taking it to heart, chances are you're not a Southern Belle.

[Texas-Gal]

It happened at UTexas all the time when I was there. We'd not only get gifts from alums that mentioned a specific girl, we'd also get gifts from the various local alum clubs throughout the state.

I know that a friend of my mom sent balloons and cookies to her chapter house in my name (although not until after the fact).

[honeychile]

Originally posted by Munchkin03
The Southern Belle Primer, like 33 said, is a humorous look at life within a small group of Southern females. Some people on GC, however, tend to take it a little too seriously, and have never heard of a "parody." If you have the opportunity to read it, it's funny, but not to be taken literally.

Basically, if you're reading the Primer as if it's the Bible and taking it to heart, chances are you're not a Southern Belle.

Oh, so true!

[Bama_Alumna]

Wouldn't this be WAY illegal??? I

LOL. Well, yes. I suppose it would technically be "illegal." But it's certainly done. It seems that at most SEC schools, the rules against contact with PNMs are rarely enforced. Alums do have an enormous influence on the chapters. I have seen a LOT of crazy stuff from girls and their mothers/grandmothers/aunts/cousins/etc. around rush time!!

[AlphaChiCutie]

I know of a girl whose grandmother wrote a $10,000 check to ADPi WAY before she even signed up for rush (or decided to go to UGA). I've seen flowers and baskets sent by alumni for their daughters as well.