i left my son for the first time when he was 17 i was so worried but i knew he is a sensible lad.
when we were coming home i had visions of a nice clean house how wrong was i the whole place was a tip with takeaway wrappers empty beer cans plates with scambled eggs on in my bedroom.

now my daughter stays at home she is 19 very sensible but she will be on her own this year my son is working away,but she is not in the least bothered in fact she is looking forward to being on her own, at least its saves me money with dog kennels as she will look after them.
i have four children and i think this will be the last holiday for my other daughter who is 16 so from next year on it will be just me hubby and son who is nearly ten, i really miss the old days when we all went together

i really miss the old days when we all went together

I can relate to that Caz. It was great to be able to holiday without the kids and TBH we can afford more holidays now that it's just the 2 of us but it would be nice to have a family holiday once again. I can't see it coming off though, unless one of them decides to get married abroad and we get invited

Really interested to read everybodys stories as mine are getting to an age where I feel they will no longer want to come with us, however despite the angst there sometimes is with bored teenagers, I feel there will be a serious hole missing. yes we may be able to have more holidays but I am worried that all I will think about is how they are and what they are doing.

DD is a real holiday buff though and I suspect as long as I was paying she would come, but DS is a different matter, only 14 but really not into it at all and wanted to be left at home this year . I just said no chance until you are over 16. Wonder if there is a 'legal' age on this, I think I read that there isn't and it's up to individuals to decide what's appropriate.

Doe

Have left my lads a couple of times now , the eldest was 18 the first time and his brother 14 , they are both sensible . The only issues were they forgot to put the bin out and had no clean underpants left
The house was fairly tidy though.

We are leaving our 2 sons for the first time this october the eldest being 18 then a 16 year old both are sensible. Our 14 year old daughter is going to her aunties. Even though the boys are sensible my mum will be checking up on them, bet she cleans the house before we arrive home. I just hope they get up for school and college.

i'm leaving my son at home for the first time when we go away in august. he's nearly 19 and has not been on holiday with us for the last 2 years but i have made him stay at his aunties in the past.
i'm very nervous about this and up until about 2 weeks ago he was staying at his aunties again. i've warned him to be on his best behaviour.
my daughter said she is not coming away with us next year she will be nearly 18 then and i'm not bothered about leaving her home as she is very sensible but the lad is another story.
i can see me phoning him to make sure he's up for work, locked up etc.
hopefully i'll have a house to come back to, but i've got to leave him sometime.

We left my eldest at ome when he had just finished his first year at UNI. He asked if he could have a couple of mates to stay while we were away and we said OK as long as one particular 'friend' was not on the list. When we got back everything seemed in order. Then a week or so later I needed to cut the lawn. I noticed that there was a patch of grass in the middle of the lawn that was different to the rest. It was a courser type of grass and it lay a diferent way to the rest. On closer inspection I could see that someone had inserted a patch of turf into the lawn. It transpired that Hi De Hi major had decided to have a campfire one might. He had dragged a big slab from the bottom of the garden and built the fire on that. However he had not taken into account the heat conduction of concrete and the lawn had scorched under the slab. His grandfather had come round with a piece of turf from his garden and patched the lawn hoping I would not notice!

Another time, same son, we were going away and leaving him at home (he was 24 by this time). We were due to drive down to Dover on the Wednesday. On tuesday night he decided to go out for a few beers straight from work with his mates. He arrived home before midnight and went to bed. However in the morning he admitted that he had lost his bag during the evening ad inside were his house keys and a pay slip with his address on! So before we could depart I had to buy new locks for the house and replace them plus get extra keys cut so that everyone who neededone had one!

Our son was 17 when we left him for the 1st time & had not long passed his test. He was going out with a girl at the time who we thought was a steadying influence, so we weren't unduly worried. When we phoned halfway through the hols I could sense that something was wrong, but they both said they were fine. When we came home it turned out that he'd an an accident in the car & landed up in a hedge. He wasn't injured & had phoned the farm where he helped out on a Sunday. They brought a tractor, & removed the car. In a way I was glad he hadn't told me.

we left our 2 sons then were 17 and 19 and went to turkey . after just putting down a light biege carpet warned them it better stay that way came back all looked well after a few hours realised the sofa had been moved so moved it back and there was a big irn bru stain which when spilled leaves a lovely orange stain which you cannot remove . then at 2 in the morning 2 girls arrived at the door there face was a picture when i answered and so was my sons ,

at 2 in the morning 2 girls arrived at the door there face was a picture when i answered and so was my sons

Great stories, keep them coming please. Hope I won't have a story to tell when I come back in a few weeks!!

oh shirley i take it we will be hearing from you in a few weeks then

We first left our youngest son (then aged about 18) whilst we had a weekend in Paris.Warned him that if anything was amiss we would get his Grandma to 'babysit' in future. Got back and everything was OK and the house clean and tidy. Great we thought, he CAN be trusted!
The following year we went to Turkey for a week and left him again (Grandma, lives on the same estate and calls on him nearly everyday). Got back home early evening. Let ourselves in and the first thing we notice is he has left the gas ring on the cooker on :yikes. and gone out to the pub, LUCKILY we have an extractor hood which is vented outside, so the gas hadn't built up too much, or else, when we had switched on the kitchen light, it would of been curtains for us!
So the next time we went away, I refused to leave him any food and just left him a pile of takeaway menu's When we arrived back from that holiday in the early hours (after a dreaded night flight) We were greeted with ' I thought you weren't home til tomorrow'. The house was a TIP. Empty beer cans everywhere, overflowing ashtrays in the lounge (we don't smoke in the house) Curry cartons on my almost new oak furniture!!
He came down the stairs with his very embarassed girlfriend, and beat a hasty retreat, and said he was going to work. When we looked in the garden, there was a huge paddling pool FULL of water and beer cans. It took my hubby HOURS to empty it, the grass under it was yellow - it had been there for days! Hubby went mad with him and we kidded him for months, that next time Grandma was definitely coming to 'babysit'.
Last year we left him again, left a note on the calendar of the date we were coming home and he seems to have learnt his lesson, as the house was nice and tidy again and no evidence of any late night parties........

Denny

WE always used to get a text from either one of our sons, asking what day and roughly what time we'll be home. I wonder why When we started leaving them at home, we used to come home to a darkened living room as the curtains hadn't been opened before they set off to work and although the dishes had been washed, there was a good few days of them piled up on top of each other on the draining bored. However, since my eldest's been courting he always makes sure the house is tidy before she comes around as she's quite particular. This has done wonders for me and I know I'll be coming home to a tidy house

Not quite the same, but thought it was worth telling anyway. A few years ago, we went away for a long weekend - me, hubby and the two kids. Arrived home to discover that my daughter's so-called "best friend" (they were 14 at the time!) had stolen my daughter's house key and broken in while we were away - bringing a handful of others with her. Every ounce of drink in the house had been guzzled - there were cigarette burns on the carpets and furniture (we are all very anti-smoking!) and other stuff had been stolen or broken. Dozy cow, however, had taken photos of the "party" on our digital camera, which, amazingly, they hadn't stolen - the evidence was handed over to the police and I also informed my daughter's school about the incident. The so-called friend never returned to school...

Re getting up for school/college/uni/work , we phoned our two every morning from Greece to make sure they were up !

Thought it was just me that used to phone home to wake my son up for work every morning!! The last time we left him,we had just finished refurbing the bathroom,new suite,tiling,floor etc,he decided to spray tan lotion on himself,dont know if he got any on himself! but the bathroom was covered,in the grouting,just everywhere!!, so glad hes moved out now

Oh dear!
Have read this just after booking today to go away for a week in October, leaving son 17 on his own for the first time - well the dog will be looking after him!!
Think I will get gran and auntie to pay random visits to make sure all is okay and keep my fingers crossed my home is still in one piece when I get back!!

How do you all manage to get away without the kids? Help somebody, mine are 24 & 18 and still insist on tagging along! Think it may have something to do with us paying maybe For the last couple of years we have been saying it's just us next year, lets push the boat out but it has yet to happen. Oh and their friends manage to tag along too!

First time I left my son alone his friends moved in for the fortnight :yikes, only found this out afterwards. Fridge was full of alcohol, bin full of pizza boxes and dishwasher full of bowls that had noodles welded to them because they had been left lying for most of the 2 weeks. 3 times in the dishwasher before that came off but the house was intact. No ciggie burns anywhere, only a couple of large stains on the carpet but the whole house stank of cleaning fluids. They had a mass clean up when they knew we were on our way home, oh and all the bedding had been changed and was on the washing line Did find the odd earring that didn't belong to me or my daughter and a black bra that definately wasn't mine. I have a psyco neighbour who doesn't tolerate noise of any kind after a certain time of night and I think this helped because I kept telling him psyco would be in to empty the house if there was any loud partying or carrying on of any kind and that would not be a pretty sight. Thankfully psyco neighbour didn't hear a cheep.