Bye Son, Don't Forget To Phone And Let Me Know You Got Home Okay

[barry1010]

My son has spent his working life driving enormous lorries, rigs, plants and appliances all over the world, sometimes in dangerous countries often with dangerous loads.  As far as I know he has never had an accident.

So why, whenever he visits, do I feel compelled to ask him to call me to let me know he has driven 120 miles up the motorway without incident and got home safely?  I mean it, too.  I don't worry about him driving at other times.

Is it a parent thing?

[bookbinder]

Yes, barry1010, it is a parent thing. It's only natural to be concerned when your child is out there, in the big world, on their own, without a parent to hold their hand. Yes, of course the child is big enough, and experienced enough, to cope with life, but it's only natural that a parent thinks about the child, in the way that you describe.

[barry1010]

Only when he's been to visit me, though.

😂

[theshedman]

My parents used to do that to us after we had visited them and had around 150 miles to go to get back to Devon.  When I worked away the first things they used to say then was when are you going back.

[jourdain2]

Yes, it is.  My 19 yr-old daughter forgot to do so once driving back at night up the A1 to Durham Uni..  I drove 20 miles to  the A1 to check that she hadn't broken down.  She hadn't rung in  when I got home so I rang the police to  ask them to keep their eyes out in case her old banger of a car had let her down on the A1.  She rang in in the morning and I had to get back to call them off.

[barry1010]

Parents say the funniest things

[Countrylover]

Yes, we all do it!  

[smurfchops]

Yes, then you can relax knowing he is safe.

[barry1010]

Yet I never worried when we didn't hear from him for weeks whilst he was driving through African countries, or Saudi

[Countrylover]

My son went off to Brunei at 16 to stay with a school friend and family.  Whilst there they were  backpacking and climbed Mount Kinabalu  and lived in the jungle for a week.   I didn't worry.  He came home and used to go down to London with friends and I worried!  I suppose out of sight and out of mind!

 

[barry1010]

I think you've hit the nail on the head 😊

[zebo]

The mother of a friend of ours used to nag him to button his coat and she would try to wrap a scarf round his neck and tuck it into his coat, she one stopped him using a bread knife, this despite him being a Captain in the Army who spent a lot of his life defusing explosives in various parts of the world!

[barry1010]

That puts me in mind of the lovely Ronnie Corbett in Sorry!  

[rockyracoon]

I do it to my kids and my mum does it to me. And if you forget, the texts start bonging off at an alarming rate. 😂

[barry1010]

🤣