Mom struggles with worries about plane malfunctions while teen
son travels abroad
It’s hard when you say goodbye to your son, knowing that within
a day or so, he’ll be 6,000 miles away.
My 15-year-old left this week to travel to Beijing, China, with
the rest of the North Monterey County High School band. They are
playing concerts and parades in several Chinese cities, meeting
students at Chinese high schools, and viewing the Great Wall and
the Terracotta Warriors.
Mom struggles with worries about plane malfunctions while teen son travels abroad
It’s hard when you say goodbye to your son, knowing that within a day or so, he’ll be 6,000 miles away.
My 15-year-old left this week to travel to Beijing, China, with the rest of the North Monterey County High School band. They are playing concerts and parades in several Chinese cities, meeting students at Chinese high schools, and viewing the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors.
He will be gone for two weeks. This will be the longest time he has ever been away from home, and the longest time he has ever been away from me.
Not to mention the farthest.
I find the whole thing pretty disconcerting. The psychic umbilical cord is being stretched to the limit.
Yet how can I not let him go? It’s a wonderful experience for the kids. This is the third time the band has traveled to China, and they’re greeted like rock stars when they’re there. It’s an adventure that they will always remember.
Still, inside, I fret and worry a bit. Sometimes, a lot.
When your children are out of your sphere of influence, I guess it’s natural to worry about them. And after all, as you parents out there know all too well, just because my son is a teenager doesn’t mean he has a clue about how to take care of himself.
I am slightly reassured by the fact that there are other parents going on this trip, parents I know well, and whom I know will look out for Hunter along the way.
But he tends to be my quiet guy, which concerns me. When something’s wrong, he keeps it to himself and doesn’t speak up. I remember last summer when, unbeknownst to me, his shoes became too small. He didn’t bother to tell me until I noticed that his toes were red and inflamed.
“What’s wrong with your toes?” I said.
“I dunno. They hurt,” was the reply.
With new, larger shoes, there was more space for his toes, and the problem was resolved without an emergency visit to the podiatrist. But the incident shows how Hunter is about things that are bothering him. He doesn’t tell anyone. I don’t know if it’s stoicism or just a belief that nothing can be done about whatever the problem is.
And that’s why I worry about him a bit when he’s away from me.
So right now I can hear you thinking: What’s wrong with this woman? Can’t she just let her kid go?
I’m trying, really I am.
I am trying not to be paranoid about every little thing that could possibly happen to him away from home, which is tough.
Plane malfunctions, the weather, and foreign germs top the list of the potential problems that I am obsessing about. Then there are a thousand smaller concerns: Will he like the food? Will he figure out how to exchange American dollars for yuans? Will there be shampoo in the hotel bathrooms?
So many possibilities for things to go wrong. Yet that’s what preparing for adulthood is all about – handling problems when they come up, and making the best of bad situations.
And on the other hand, it might all be perfectly fine.
Yet I worry. That’s a mother’s job, I guess. And one that I’ll probably never get over.
