Helicopter parenting at it's finest

 Yesterday, I was the helicopter parent, I mean helicopter step parent because good gravy we must get my title right, and I am not ashamed to admit it. Hubby and I sent youngest stepson off to Europe for 10 days with his high school. We met him at the airport and decided to stick around until he was safely up the escalators and through security. We hung out in the background visiting with other parents and not hovering too much unless it was needed. I normally am not a helicopter parent especially when I am in the role as step parent.  I try to stay in the background when his mom is around, but she was nowhere to be seen, so hover I did. I was sending my stepson overseas for 10 days! I wanted to make sure everything was covered.  I noticed he did not have a luggage tag on his backpack so hubby went over there to help him take care of it. We went over when Ms. Bonner was helping him check in. Hubby went up to the luggage check in to make sure he was not over the limit. We double checked with him to make sure he had his passport and Euro’s. We took pictures of all said events hugged him good bye and sent him up the escalator.  Could he have done all this stuff by himself? Sure. Do I trust the people he is going with to take care of him? Of course.  Am I going to apologize for my hovering? Not one little bit. Does he care that we were there? Probably not and I am sure he complained about it the whole time, but honestly that is not why I hovered yesterday. I hovered because I needed to for my piece of mind. I am not going to drop him off at the curb and say see ya in ten days! If that is your style, sleep well.  I would do this for any of my other kids and probably my hubby, cousins, friends and parents as well.  I will admit, stepson is not a good communicator when it comes to hubby. He tells him mom everything, but dad, not so much. When hubby and I were sitting on the front porch yesterday he downloaded the flight tracker so we could track stepson’s flight. We noticed that around 7:00 his flight still had not taken off even though it was supposed to leave at 5:18. Hubby texted stepson’s mom and she said of course she knew it was late, stepson had texted and told her. Sigh. Communication is so nice. Even if you think the other may know, it is better to get more information than none at all. At that point I went into “mom” mode. I contacted my sweet friend whose son is also on the same trip and asked her to communicate with me about the flight. Thankfully, she is awesome and let me know anything she heard and I did vice versa for her.  Her daughter just returned from Europe so she set me at ease with some other things as well. Thank goodness for friends! I am now in the know and feel much better for it. By the way, the flight tracking app is fabulous. We knew when he landed in Atlanta, when he flew over Ireland and when he landed in Paris. Awesome! So, I am excited to hear all about his trip when he returns in 10 days. I will be wondering, as I am now, what he is doing. Visiting the Eifel Tower? Eating his weight in Gelato? Making new friends?  So, if you need me, I will over here hovering from afar and not apologizing one little bit.

Hugs!