Leonie’s at the moment in Dubai with her swim team. Middle East Championship meet and a week training camp and for sure loads of fun and good times with friends. Since weeks she’s excited about the trip, packed her stuff more or less by herself (I’m sure the things I put into the suitcase won’t be touched), made me a shopping list, gave me a short hug at 4am yesterday and off she went, all happy and smiling. No tears, no mood swings, no emotional chaos, nothing!

No support and encouragement needed anymore from my side (except money). Great to know that our parenting starts to bear fruits but it hurts badly: where’s my baby gone? Why are they growing up so quickly? There are a lot of guidelines about how to prepare your child for a residential trip but I would rather need one like “how to prepare for the moment when your Peter Pans will grow up and fly away, and you will become Old Wendy, waiting by the windowsill for a glimpse of magic…“ I’ll never forget what my mother told me, when I called her 14 years ago, petrified because my unborn child wasn’t moving in my stomach as normal: “Become accustomed to this feeling my dear, it will last a lifetime.” Oh yes, she was so right!

One thousand thoughts in my mind: hope they’ll travel safe, will she eat and drink enough, does she get enough sleep, hopefully she wont get poorly, injured or lost or even… On one side I want her to want to explore what the world has to offer, to take in different culture, to learn to appreciate things that may not be entirely to her taste, to step out of her comfort zone and to learn to deal with tricky situations. But on the other side is she really old enough and prepared to start being independent and away from her family? To be honest I think she is, actually I myself isn’t ready yet. The next 10 days won’t be a walk in the park for me, even I’m exempt from taxi duties. I know I’ll check my phone more often during the next days and I’m aware that there won’t be loads of “Mom I miss you” messages. I’ll have to stick to the general camp messages and simply hope that she’ll will eat and drink enough, go to bed early, wont get poorly, injured or lost or even… that she’ll have the best time ever and create memories for life!

As soon as she’s back home, I’ll try to squeeze enough information out of her to write a blog about her experiences. In the meantime I’ll drink some more chamomile tea, only because it’s too early for Gin…