Master Frugal left last Monday morning for a three night trip to Edinburgh with his classmates.
The trip cost around £150 and we were told that £40 would be a good amount of spending money to send them. It seemed like a lot of money when we first signed the permission slip last year but he was so desperate to go with his friends that saying no was never an option!
Fast forward to last Monday morning and as I dropped him off at school at the ridiculously early hour of 6am, I knew that I wasn’t ready for him to go away for that long without me and to be honest, I didn’t think he was ready either.
He’s only just turned ten and I worried that he would feel homesick as he’s only ever had the occasional one night sleepover in the past, I worried about what he would eat because he’s such a fussy eater, I worried about him hurting himself and me not being there, I worried that he would have to do things he really didn’t want to (like visiting the dungeons) and I even worried about him packing his case back up to come back home!
I’m not usually such a worried but I think that the thought of him being away for three nights just brought out all my worries.
So, waving him away last Monday morning with a pretend smile plastered on my face was not one of my best moments. The week that followed seemed like the longest week ever and it felt like I was counting down the minutes till we could go and pick him up.
Thursday teatime finally came around and it was time to pick him up!
He climbed off the bus with a huge smile on his face and gave me the biggest hug
I had a quick word with the teacher who said he got a little bit homesick the first night but soon got over it thankfully. He also said he thought Master Frugal has really grown over that few days although I didn’t really know what he meant at the time and he was clearly too busy to chat more with 30 children, 30 suitcases and 30 sets of parents to sort out. 😉
We got into the car and he started chatting about all of the things he’d done and he didn’t stop to take a breath for about two hours!
In the four days he was gone for he went to Edinburgh Zoo, Edinburgh Castle, the National Museum of Scotland, the Botanical Gardens, Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh Dungeons and visited Greyfriars Bobby. They’ve eaten out each night, been bowling, watched films and hung out at the place they were staying.
As his mother, I look at everything he’s done and I can see just how far outside of his comfort zone he’s had to go to do some of the things they’ve done. Eating out for example was something I worried about as he’s still quite a fussy eater but he’s done brilliantly and been encouraged to try new things. Another thing he worried about in advance was the Edinburgh Dungeons but he managed to get through it whereas lots of them didn’t apparently! He says it was ‘scary but awesome’ and I can tell when he talks about that he was definitely scared but determined to get through it. 
I look at everything they’ve done and I’m amazed that they’ve managed to do all that for the price we paid but even more than that, I look at how much extra confidence he has from the new things he’s tried and the things he’s done that have given him a sense of accomplishment and I know that I’m not going to complain again about the cost of school trips and residentials.
Last week’s experience was priceless to him, and that make’s it worth every single penny!
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