Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Parental Paranoia brought to you by Southwest Airlines

Alyssa and I leave bright and early tomorrow morning for DFW. She'll be dancing in a national dance competition Wed. and Thurs. and possibly Sat. I have big plans that involve IKEA, La Madeleine, and Sam Moon, for another cute purse of course. We'll also get to see Aunt Liz and hopefully a few other precious friends we've missed in the past year. I promise to take my camera and document it all and bore you later with the details.

Alyssa has big plans to spend time with her best friends, Caitlyn and Sara-beth, that have now evolved into Kevin and I agreeing to allow her to take her first flight alone. I'll be leaving her in Dallas so she can spend a week with them and fly back the next week---ALONE. And while I am normal nervous about this arrangement right now because the decision was just birthed an hour ago; I feel quite sure I will be in a panicked state of paranoia by next Friday and someone better find me an oxygen tank while she is actually in the air.

I went on my first flight ever, alone, when I was 16 to see my best friend. She spent every summer with her dad in Cleveland. I saved all my babysitting money to buy my own ticket, just like Alyssa. Many times I wondered what in the world my mother was thinking to agree to such a plan and now I find myself in her shoes, wondering why in the world I agreed to such a plan. Yet I know that she's a responsible girl and will be fine and this is one of many times I'll have to let her grow up some, but is it okay if I'm not jumping for joy at this milestone in her life? I think I'm entitled to some worrying and pacing and ranting and hand wringing and ......

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

how exciting for her! my kids have never flown alone and there has been talk about them going to the states to visit without us. at some unknown time. i don't think that will happen for a long time.

the first time i flew alone was on southwest airlines. back when they still had peanut planes. i flew from dallas to houston. i was in 2nd grade - so way before security worries. my mom escorted me onto the plane. helped me find my seat and asked the strange man who had the seat next to mine to keep an eye on me. and it turned out okay!

Sharon said...

the weird thing is she's too old for an employee to be assigned to her but she can't have anyone she knows escort her to the gate either because of security. Where's the 'security' in allowing a 15 yr. old to roam free in the airport? She's supposed to call us as soon as she lands and keep talking till she gets to us at the baggage claim. I'm sure she'll be fine but I'm still going to wallow in my angst over the ordeal.