Unaccompanied Minors

Baby Boy says, "Bye-bye, airplane!"

I’ve just banished my older three children --Excuse me, I mean I sent them to visit their grandparents in Alabama.


They flew all the way from Honolulu to Atlanta by themselves. (My mom picked them up in Atlanta, which is only about three hours’ drive from home.)

Needless to say, I was a little worried about this trip.

I’d decided almost a year ago to do this. After last year’s visit, I felt that taking that plane trip with the twins was going to be out of the question for a while.

I hate flying anyways, but when you mix an overseas flight with twin toddlers… it’s bad. It’s really bad.

(See previous post, “Enjoy Your Flight? As if!”)

But I knew the kids really looked forward to visiting with their grandparents, aunts and cousins every year.

It seemed like a good solution to send them on their own. After all, ET is 14, and old enough to watch her 11 and 8 year old sisters. Plus it’s a nonstop flight, and I knew that, as unaccompanied minors, I could take them all the way to the gate and have them picked up at the gate. There was no way they could get lost.

But as the time approached for the kids to actually leave, I got more and more concerned about the whole thing.

I wasn’t really worried about the plane crashing, although that does always cross your mind whenever you get on an airplane. But after all, according to planecrashinfo.com, your chances of being killed in a plane crash are 1 in 9.2 million.

(See how I can insert factual information and lend credibility to my blog?)

Mostly I was worried about how they would act while they were unsupervised on the flight, to be honest.

I mean, I know how they act when I’m WITH them!

I could imagine turning on the TV and hearing: “Our top story tonight: Fighting children cause a major disruption on trans-Pacific flight, causing the pilot to turn the aircraft around and inconveniencing thousands of people. Stay tuned to hear the shocked reactions of passengers and crew. WHAT was their mom thinking?!”

Nightmares like that kept me awake for several days before they left.

But the truth is, they arrived safely, if a little grumpily, right on time in Atlanta.

And since the plane DIDN’T have to be diverted, I guess they must have behaved all right.

At least, I hope so…