<p>Wow, I’ve just spent the last hour (?) reading all of the posts. It is good to see so many different perspectives and to glean the bits of relevant info I can use. </p>
<p>Over the last few months, I have been working on all of the arrangements for our family trip to take my daughter to USNA. It is not an easy task to get five children (one almost an adult), a boyfriend and myself all to Annapolis from the midwest and to have FUN while we’re doing it! As I have made reservations and planned expenditures, the price tag is increasing. I really don’t have extra funds to be doing this, but one of the perks of raising a big family (other than more love and noise than you can immagine) will be my ecconomic refund check! With that in my account and a little savings, we are setting out on a trip that I hope will be embedded in everybody’s memory forever!</p>
<p>Back to the subject. I made the mistake of showing my daughter (future mid) my expense calculations. She has mentioned several times before and after seeing the amount of $ it will cost that she can just fly there (USNA) by herself and that I should try and save the money. She is very responsible and worries about our family’s economic status often since I am a single mother of five. But what she doesn’t fully understand yet is that it’s “NOT JUST ABOUT HER/HIM” (said best by Christcorp on 1/31/08) and that it’s not about the money either!</p>
<p>I need this to ease my way into letting go of an 18 year labor of love. Her other (sometimes judgemental) teenage sisters need to see the magnitude of her future and hopefully not always despise all of the past focus that she received and they feel they didn’t. Her little sister’s need to see some physical place so when they miss their big sister, (who will not really be involved in their lives much from here on out) I can remind them where she is and tell stories of the things they remember from that day (I-Day). It is all about a much bigger picture with all of us who have been woven together for some many years to be slowly separated and to move forward on our own paths. </p>
<p>Money comes and goes, family time doesn’t. We never quite know what life holds in store for us. My daughter will have plenty of time in her future to be/feel independent. I know she will really be happy we are there to physically and emotionally support her. The money we spend will be long forgotten and never missed and maybe some of those I-Day memories will help carry her through her long, hard summer?</p>