@CA1543 Our oldest is now 22 and the youngest 18, so we now leave them home when we travel. That said, we usually only travel for 2-3 days. When they were young we relied on parents either staying at our home with them or took them to our parent’s homes. When the kids were 17 if one of them would be alone for just one night - we would make arrangements with a responsible friends parents to have that friend stay with them and the parents would be “on call” for any emergency. We are fortunate that my MIL and BIL both live in town - so the kids always have someone nearby to contact.
I have not left D17 alone as we have family nearby. I suppose I could leave her - she’d probably like it but I would worry. It’s only 6 months away before she’s on her own at college!
We have a trip planned in the upcoming months. D and her best friend are going to go it alone for a few days and then my mom is coming. It will be good practice for both of them being on their own.
Our youngest is about to graduate from HS, but we’ve never had family nearby and always traveled with the kids (except for when they were away at camp at the same time).
We also have a week off in February so will be traveling as a family. My mother in law lives very close so she stays with my DS when we leave. He is an only child so I’m not sure he would really want to stay alone. We realize we are lucky to have family s close.
@snoozn Enjoy the trip! We lost my mom to Alzheimer’s in September - sorry for yours; it’s just devasting to watch. My 84 yo dad traveled for the first time over Thanksgiving to my house and again in Christmas to see my sisters. Travel has changed a lot in the time since mom began her journey; it was tiring for him but he was so glad to get away. He travels overseas with a group of WWII vets in April - I’m nervous about it but glad he decided to go for it!
I left D then 17 and S then 15 in August when I brought my oldest back to college - seems hubby always ends up with required travel on move in/move out days. Can’t say I was 100% pleased, but it wasn’t as bad as if the oldest had been left alone! 
Big day last Friday, my D got her acceptance to UF! And we have a kinda cool story about how she found out.
My D works as a server in the dining hall at an extended care living facility (retirement village). She was called into work Friday evening so she would not be home when the announcement came out. I really think she wanted to work that night since all of us sitting around the computer hitting re-fresh every 30 seconds would create too much anxiety.
The retirement village tends to hire high achieving high schoolers to work as servers. Most of the residents enjoy interacting with high school students and are very interested in their choice of colleges, majors and future plans. There is even a scholarship funded by the residents for servers that have put in at least two years. One couple, I will call them Mr. & Mrs Gator, have taken quite an interest in D once they found out UF was at the top of her list. When they found out she was in marching band – Mr. Gator was also in the marching band – and FSU was her second choice, the heavy recruitment started.
So on Friday morning my wife had the great idea of reaching out to Mr. & Mrs. Gator (we do not know them) to see if they would like to surprise our D with the news. It was tough when we realized this meant we would not see D’s face when she first heard the news, but we felt it could be so much more meaningful for her. My wife called the retirement village and left a message for Mr. & Mrs. Gator outlining the plan. They called back immediately and were very enthusiastic to be involved. We worked out a plan where I would get confirmation of her acceptance on the portal and then give them a call with the go ahead.
My D was working a party with about 40 residents in the private dining room that night, but with Mrs. Gator being head of the social committee and Mr. Gator being over gregarious, party crashing was no problem. They came into the dining room during the appetizer course and my D was in the kitchen readying the salads. Mrs. Gator went into the kitchen and told her she was needed in the dinning room right now. My D when to a state of mild panic – she did not remember seeing Mrs. Gator at the party – had missed serving her table appetizers? Had she created a major faux pas so severe that the head of the social committee was called in to reprimand her?
When she entered the dining room she found Mr. Gator standing in the middle of dining room holding bundle of blue and orange balloons. He handed them too her and told her “Congratulations, you are now a Gator, welcome to the Gator Nation.” The room erupted into applause and she broken into tears. There was a lot of hugging and congratulations. Mr. & Mrs. Gator been so sure she would get accepted they bought the balloons and organized the announcement with the private party in advance. They called us back after the making the announcement to our D and gave us the full account. When she got home that evening she gave us the same account and then broke into tears and hugging all over again. We knew then we made the right decision.
It looks D will be a Gator now. We are still keeping FSU on the list since technically she is still in the running for the Presidential Scholars program, but the pull of the Gator Nation is strong in this one.
Goose bumps. What a story! Congratulations @CaucAsianDad !
@CaucAsianDad What a great story!!! Congrats to your D on the admission and being DONE!
@CaucAsianDad I cried reading this! Excellent memory for her to cherish!!!
Awesome story @CaucAsianDad , congrats
@CaucAsianDad Woo hoo! In-state at UF is totally BIG MAC! Congrats!
Excellent story @CaucAsianDad! Thanks for sharing!
@CaucAsianDad I’m just speechless at how wonderful that is! She’s so lucky to have you and your wife, and Mr. & Mrs. Gator!
I’m all verklempt…
Excellent story @CaucAsianDad! Tough to beat that Congratulations!
Love that story. Well Produced and executed. Congrats…
What a great surprise for your daughter. And what fun for “Mr. and Mrs. Gator” to be able to be the ones that told her!
Now if only Mr. and Mrs. Gator can come through with that scholarship…
JOTD for future Gators:
Q: What’s green and smells like blue paint?
A: Green paint.
@CaucAsianDad That is an awesome story and so generous of you and your W to allow Mr. and Mrs. Gator to share in the moment. I’m betting it’s as memorable for them as for your D. Congratulations to you all!