TEENAGE HOLIDAY

*Sigh*

I have just dropped my daughter off with some friends. She is off on holiday tomorrow at some horrendous hour with about 500 of her closest friends post AS levels to somewhere Mediterranean that I am not sure will be in the slightest bit ready for them all….

The excitement (for her and her friends) over the last week has been tangible. The ever increasing fear (for me and the other parents) has been even more tangible. Plans, lists, advice, meetings, foreign exchanges, purchases galore and yet more advice on every horror story us parents as a collective group could think up have been regailed….in of course an attempt to put the fear of something into them….and I don’t think it has worked (nor should it of course really).

This is one of the worst parts about being a parent. The bit where you have to ignore every screaming atom of your maternal instinct and let them go somewhere where there is nobody to tell them to put more suncream on, to drink more water, to stop drinking alcohol, to go to sleep, to get up and see the sites, to stop being silly…. to let them go. THEY’RE STAYING SOMEWHERE WHERE THERE APPEARS TO BE A 24 HOUR DISCO IN THE POOL! AND THEIR ROOMS ARE POOL SIDE. HOW WILL THEY SLEEP?

My friends and I had a pointless, might as well have been invisible group meeting with our girls to discuss health and safety but of course at their age, they are indestructible and immortal and we are mouldy old boring old no fun old smelly old farts. We offered notes from a girl who was currently out and about in some equally debauched destination – her mother had spoken to her just earlier that day:-

“Trust me mum, everything is fine – we are all having an amazing time – yes, there have been a few incidents, but not really anything to worry about”.

The above mentioned “incidents” included one boy climbing over a fence onto private property and getting bitten by a guard dog, another boy on a drip in hospital, two boys had been beaten up, another had broken his wrist, two girls had their bags slashed and all their valuables stolen… and then there were the minor issues of sunburn and bites and getting lost…but by the end they were all taking it in their stride and we were gibbering wrecks.

My daughter is going away on her own for the first time. Without any adult supervision. At all. Whatsoever. This is huge both for me and her.

I shouldn’t be too worried, I’ve been through this stress before with my firstborn – although when I think what he put us through when they first went abroad (refer back to the Polish prison post) it has not helped my general wellbeing. She is more sensible. That said, if she is with boys that start fighting it’s just as bad. If she gets too drunk, or drugged or lost or upset or homesick (wishful thinking) and I am not there to help her…will she be OK?

She is with a bunch of best friends. Hopefully they will all look after each other and be safe. The most important thing I told her is to stick together, not lose anyone, turn vomiting friends on their side, get to a hospital with any injuries….you know the drill – all the stuff we did (or didn’t do) as 17/18 year olds and survived. I’m marginally jealous obviously – I never got to do anything like that with friends and the reason I am being sort of OK with it (although you’d clearly never guess from this post) is that I left my home in Hong Kong when I was just 17 and moved to London on my own, so how hard can it be to be mature enough to get through a debauched holiday?

As I dropped her off tonight I said “Be Good And Have Fun” and the father who is housing them until 3am tomorrow morning said “well, it’s one or the other, you can’t have both”……

Can’t you?

He’s probably right.

BUT STILL. I want her to have fun and I want her to be safe. Surely that is not too much to ask?

So. Now I have eight days of fretting. I don’t want her to text every day – too much pressure and I’ll worry if she forgets…

We had breakfast together this morning and bought up the entire toiletries department of Boots – when I asked her if she had her passport, ticket and money she said “OMG – let me check again that I’ve got all my make-up – that’s the most important thing”.

Here she is my gorgeous girl – have the best holiday ever and come back in one piece – that’s all I ask xx