Nancy, are you leaving your minor children behind? My husband and I are. I find it quite difficult. Everyone says it's for the better but yet I don't feel that way in the short run.
I mean, I'll be fine but it's a lot of work to get them ready and then it's sad to not talk to them for two weeks.
Yes, they are 16 and 17 and juniors in high school, so there is no way they could travel at this time of year. This trip was booked solely as a 'bucket list' for my mother, who is 77. When the Florida rates came out, it was just too good an opportunity to pass up. Since January we've had to scurry to get a passport for my mother, reservations (still doing that) figure out how I was getting to Miami (rental car or fly), add her cousin to the trip, get the babysitting (for my kids and my father).
The problem is we just moved to Florida a year ago, and have no family here. My kids are each going to stay with friends. Neither drives, but the zone for the school is small and everyone is basically in the same area.
In the last 3 weeks, we've all been sick (so check that off the list, right?), one has finished a play, the other finished lacrosse. While I'm gone, they will have AP exams, end of course exams, and finals start the day I return. One will have tutoring. Just a lot of planning and running around. My brothers, who often come to babysit if I've had to travel, can't during May because it is the busy season for their businesses.
So I'm just going with a little faith that it will all work out. I'm looking into paying for International calling and texting, not that there is anything I could do about anything. They are both good students so I think they will do the required studying, but one is staying with a friend who is not a serious student. And what if one were to asked to the PROM (which you know could happen next week and then I'd have to arrange for all that before I leave!)
Don't feel sorry for them. One just went to Paris and Normandy for spring break and the other is traveling every weekend in June for lacrosse tournaments - my vacation is the cheapest of the three of us!
But yes, a lot of odds and ends. I have a long list.
Nancy