I wonder sometimes is my life really my life. I mean who would have thought that at 1 a.m. on a Saturday morning that I would be telling my life story on the computer, while my daughter’s laundry is being washed for a trip that she is going to be taking on a plane BY HERSELF in say 7 hours. I know I shouldn’t have waited to the last minute to get her stuff ready, but I was a little overwhelmed by the destroying of my 1,000 book school room.

Yeah, that’s right. No typo. 1,000 books (and my gurl Yolanda thinks I underestimated by a few hundred).

As you know, the past 30 days of my life have been a bit of a whirlwind and I was preparing this house for us to move out of it. In order for us to move, we REALLY needed to downsize and trust me, there are some happy people in our neighborhood who are so glad that we did. So far, people have come and picked up from the front of our house: a white pantry closet, 2 black file cabinets, a car seat, and some blinds. To my surprise they have not come and taken the changing table and the nice, video cabinet. After my girlfriend’s wonderful son came over and helped me move the heavy stuff like the bookcases (sold 6 of them in 10 minutes!), tables, TVs (I’m selling a 12 in and a 27 in.), I rearranged my living room for a homeschoolers sale. My husband told me not to count on people coming by and I had over 5 people here at one time! We made over $100 and I was selling books for under $1!

Anyway, it took me all week to get ready for the sale, so I couldn’t get my daughter ready for her one week trip to Michigan. She’s done with her rites of passage/cotillion classes, so we thought it would be nice for her to hang with the grandparents for a week before the summer is out. DH had an extra one way Southwest ticket and now, for the first time, my daughter is going to get on a plane BY HERSELF. I…I didn’t think I was going to freak out this bad, but I think I’m freakin’. I’m reading articles online about what to do if your child travels alone and what information does the child need, how to get a guest pass so that you can get through security. I mean this stuff is really wild. Of course, I don’t read this stuff until last minute because…see above, so now I’m trying to figure out what else I need to do to make this 1 hour 15 minute flight a pleasant and safe experience. Here’s what I’ve put together so far:

• She’s going to carry my cell phone with her, along with her itinerary, a COPY of her birth certificate (I’m not sure why she needs that, but my mom thought it would be a good idea since she doesn’t have photo ID).
• Pack extra snacks in her purse since you know they are kinda stingy on planes nowadays.

• Cash in her pocket. If I had time, I would have gotten one of those pay in advance credit card look alikes which she could put in her pocket, just in case she loses her purse, which can happen and does happen often.

She is leaving on the first flight in the morning, non-stop, on Southwest. I told her to notify the flight attendant that she is an unaccompanied minor traveling alone (I read that a lot of teens think they are too “grown” to notify the staff and then when there is a situation, they don’t know that there is an unaccompanied minor aboard). I, of course, will be monitoring the flight online (like I worked for air traffic control) until she calls me and lets me know that she is in the company of her grandparents.

Geez…this parenting thing is nerve wrecking. Wish me luck in my 4 hours of sleep. Oh, 3 hours and 53 minutes…gotta move the laundry to the dryer!

Now it’s your turn to weigh in: Did you ever fly alone as a kid? How old were you? How far did you have to travel? How old would your child have to be before you left them fly alone or would you never let them fly alone?