The Circle of Life

I wrote a post on the tension and drama that unfolds when my parents take a flight out of my house. I usually call them paranoid, over-cautious and needlessly edgy, among other things.

Now in order to complete the picture I need to put on record what usually happens when I take a flight with my family, i.e. husband and kids.

6 30 am:

Me - Wake up kids! We have a flight to catch!
Them - The flight is only at 9 30. The airport is only ½ hour away! Don't be paranoid! (rings an uneasily familiar bell)

6.45 : Another attempt to wake up kids

7.00 : The laborious process of rising and shining commences

7.30 : Debate on the merits and demerits of jacket A vs jacket B ensues between kid A and kid B. It doesn’t matter that we are going to a place where the heat makes jackets redundant.

8.00 : Books, toys, puzzles, travel games and numerous other things that have never seen the light of day in our house are packed in the hope of seeing the light of day in another city.

8.15 The last of the stuffed toys still remaining in the kids’ shelf is stuffed into the already overflowing suitcase.

Did I mention it is a 1 week holiday? Seeing their empty room and the size of their suitcase, one would never guess.

8.30 : Merits of drinking milk vs. threat of being left behind are weighed before milk is drunk

8.35 : All set to go. Door is finally shut. Oops, one large suitcase is still inside

8.40 : Suitcase is successfully retrieved, along with 1 kid, who we guiltily realized had also been left inside.

8.45 : We are ready to depart, finally!

Did I mention the flight was at 9.30  ?

Whether or not we made it to that flight is irrelevant. The obvious take-out from this story is that no flight in my life has ever been and will ever be uneventful.

The less obvious but more important take-out is my realisation that what goes around comes around this quickly.

I thought I had reached that 'know-it-all' stage in life which allows me to go around telling my parents what do and how to do it. But what I had no way of knowing is that my children would beat me at my own game, some 30 years too soon.

I need to take urgent lessons from my parents on the fine art of tolerating impetuous and reckless children. After all, they have had over 35 years of experience at it, haven't they?