{"id":1924,"date":"2010-08-04T15:25:22","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T15:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/?p=1924"},"modified":"2010-08-04T18:43:55","modified_gmt":"2010-08-04T18:43:55","slug":"letting-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/?p=1924","title":{"rendered":"Letting Go."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em> <\/em>It had to happen sometime. My baby has grown up and is going away on his first holiday with &#8220;the lads&#8221; with no mummy and daddy to look after him and keep him safe. Aarrgghh! Well mum did all the fussing while dad probably had another beer.<\/p>\n<p>Where\u00a0 have the years gone? It seems only yesterday we brought a tiny wee scrap of humanity home from hospital which led to breast feeding (ouch , ouch and then brilliant, ) nappies, potties, weaning, crawling, walking, talking, nursery school, primary school, grammar school, college. Not forgetting\u00a0 braces,\u00a0 girls, broken hearts,\u00a0 teenage angst and 1st summer job.\u00a0 Then along came shaving, driving lessons, beer, clubbing , 1st real job in IT won and lost all in the space of 8 weeks (due to recession.)<\/p>\n<p>There was so much more as well. The decisions about when he could play out the front of the house instead of in the enclosed back garden; when he could ride his bike on the road; when he could walk to a friend&#8217;s house by himself. As he got older the worries\u00a0 and decisions didn&#8217;t get any easier, just different. When could he\u00a0 have a mobile phone, tv, playstation, go into town with his friends , go for a pint , go to a club etc etc.<\/p>\n<p>We survived, well I survived. My better half is far too laid back\u00a0 to have really worried and thought\u00a0 I had him a bit too tethered to the old apron strings.<\/p>\n<p>In hind sight he was probably right &#8211; unfortunately he usually is (damn.) But I think that&#8217;s just what mums do. Right?<\/p>\n<p>Anyway I know he&#8217;s sensible (sort of ) and his mates are all nice lads . They have booked a week in Majorca , have taken out gold insurance, researched the hotel and generally done all the right things. So why am I still terrified? Because although he is 20, towers over me, has a voice in his boots\u00a0 &#8211; he&#8217;s still my baby!!<\/p>\n<p>So just to ease my mind (NOT) what have I been watching on TV? Sun, Sea and A &amp; E! Where is it set ? Magalluf. Where is he going ? Magalluf!\u00a0 Strangely enough my first holiday away with &#8220;the girls&#8221; many, many, many years ago was to &#8211; yes, Magalluf. Mind you that was in the 70&#8217;s and it was very sedate and quiet then- just us girls sitting drinking tea and knitting!!!!! If you believe that you&#8217;ll believe anything.<\/p>\n<p>As well as his clothes, toiletries, document organiser, security wallet etc I have assembled a veritable pharmacy for him to take with him &#8211; &#8221; just in case.&#8221; Short of major surgery I think I&#8217;ve got it covered. I did draw the line at condoms &#8211; he can buy his own!! -&#8221; just in case!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What more can I do? Nothing really . I have to trust we have done a halfway reasonable job as parents and let him go and have fun &#8211; the same way our parents did with us. It&#8217;s just another step in his journey, one I hope he will enjoy and tell us all (well probably not all) about when he comes home.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s just one other tiny detail. When he gets home, we&#8217;ll be away on our jollies so he&#8217;ll have the house to himself, well apart from the cats and the snake. Why do I hear the words PARTY reverberating round in my head???<\/p>\n<address> <\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It had to happen sometime. My baby has grown up and is going away on his first holiday with &#8220;the lads&#8221; with no mummy and daddy to look after him and keep him safe. Aarrgghh! Well mum did all the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/?p=1924\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging-val"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1924"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1928,"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions\/1928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}