First Residential Trip for our Youngest
Our youngest daughter arrived in our bedroom doorway fully dressed, teeth brushed, and hair combed at 7am sharp this morning. She had obviously been standing in the hallway, waiting for the alarm to go off.
This morning she has departed on a coach with the rest of her school year for her first residential tripstaying at an outward bounds place in the south west until the end of the week. Suddenly this morning she looked very grown up, wandering along with her trolley suitcase through the puddles towards the car.
Watching Facebook this morning during the quiet moments, it appears this is the first trip away from “Mum and Dad” for a lot of the children in the year group. Questions were flying thick and fast about staying to wave them off or not. Most Mums seemed to want to, but not if they were the only ones.
Letting children goletting them stand on their own two feetis an interesting experience. I guess in some ways it's almost like everything you have done with them until that point has been preparation in some way. We have wonderful umbrella terms such as “brought up right”, “well adjusted”, or “happy go lucky”, when in reality it just means that the parents have put in a lot of hard work around behaviour, decision making, morals, fairness, and so on. You see it all the time if you watch them playing with their peers.
The dynamic in our house is going to be very different this week. Miss Eleven is going to feel like she has an arm and a leg missing. There maybe claims of boredom, and invitations for her older sister to share her bedroom. Maybe not. I guess we'll find out.