Painted Coolers

[alum]

The new pledges in my son's house recently received these from their pledge moms. I understand why a girl would make this for a boyfriend or even a fraternity formal date, but I don't get why an upperclassman girl would take the time for a freshman that she is not involved with romantically. Is the phrase pledge mom new terminology for what we called little sisters back in my day?

[adpiucf]

Originally Posted by alum

Is the phrase pledge mom new terminology for what we called little sisters back in my day?

Never heard them called that. We called them big sister/little brother and big brother/little sister, even though it was verboten.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by alum

The new pledges in my son's house recently received these from their pledge moms. I understand why a girl would make this for a boyfriend or even a fraternity formal date, but I don't get why an upperclassman girl would take the time for a freshman that she is not involved with romantically. Is the phrase pledge mom new terminology for what we called little sisters back in my day?

I don't think so. If it's the same terminology as on my campus, the "pledge mom" was someone who is close with the pledge's big brother, asked by the big brother to informally look out for the pledge. Usually, there's a pledge mom night, where the pledges meet their "moms", and the moms give them gifts with their letters on it. I believe I got all of my pledge sons basketball-style shorts with my letters on them, and shot glasses with their own letters on it.

The entire arrangement is HIGHLY frowned-upon by virtually all of the national groups.

[alum]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

I don't think so. If it's the same terminology as on my campus, the "pledge mom" was someone who is close with the pledge's big brother, asked by the big brother to informally look out for the pledge. Usually, there's a pledge mom night, where the pledges meet their "moms", and the moms give them gifts with their letters on it. I believe I got all of my pledge sons basketball-style shorts with my letters on them, and shot glasses with their own letters on it.

The entire arrangement is HIGHLY frowned-upon by virtually all of the national groups.

No doubt to the questionable status of these pledge moms.

It's one thing to buy these items as you described although I am surprised you were allowed to put your letters on things given to non members. Back in our day beyond the little sisters, we had Keymen and Theta had Kitemen, but they wore the baseball jerseys with the word Kappa or Theta written with the baseball font, not our letters. In any case, it's not as time-consuming to buy things as to make things and these coolers look as if they take a tremendous amount of time and money.