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Original poster

Son's passport expiring - family hols in ruins

828 replies

blueshoes · 16/10/2021 21:00

Dh and I were looking forward to our family holiday in Crete, Greece for the October half term. We watched the covid-19/PCR situation closely not realising that my 15 year old son's passport has less than 3 months. Just found out today. This is our first foreign holiday since covid struck.

The government website says that for entry to Greece, your passport must be valid for at least 3 months after the day you plan to leave Greece, or any other Schengen country.

We leave on 30 October and my son's passport expires just short of 3 months on 22 January 2022. It is too late to renew his passport as we are leaving in less than a week.

Ds cannot come with us, can he? Sad We f_ked up.

Anybody recently travelled to Greece with Ryanair with less than 3 months left on their passport? Is it a bad idea to turn up and chance it or bite the bullet now and plan on the basis ds cannot go.

OP posts:
LoveGrooveDanceParty · 17/10/2021 17:54

This thread is absolutely hilarious.

The pearl-cluthing and way some posters keep coming back to take it all quite so personally is a joy to behold. Grin

Absolutely loving some people’s insistence that a 15YO lad would much rather go to Crete and experience Greek culture, and of course cuisine every evening, than stay at home with his friends. Grin

LoveGrooveDanceParty · 17/10/2021 17:55

@ShuddaBeenMe

I'm sure one of the other parents will have the sense to let the school know. As a safeguarding lead we would want to know this and would absolutely investigate.

He's 15.

You’re funny.

Yes indeed, a 15YO staying with friends is next-level concerning. Grin

CecilieRose · 17/10/2021 18:04

I'm absolutely astounded that so many posters think the woman is responsible for checking that her FIFTEEN year old's passport is in date. He's FIFTEEN. Three years off being a legal adult, two years off being able to drive, and he can't manage to check that his own passport is in date before a foreign holiday? Can't manage to stay at home alone? I stayed home alone from 15 onwards while my parents went away with my younger siblings because I had a summer job I got myself to every day.

I dread to think what absolute wet blankets some people on this thread must be raising if they think a 15-year-old is too young to be left behind alone.

CecilieRose · 17/10/2021 18:08

@VickyEadieofThigh

Blimey,there are some harsh people on here!

My Dad went to work at 14 and my older brother went down the pit at 15 - I think making arrangements for this 15 year old to stay with friends in their family home for a week isn't the harshest thing to happen to a teenager.

I was working full time during the summers at 15 in a factory, and I'm a woman in my mid thirties! My parents went abroad for two weeks and I stayed home alone, went to work every day, cooked my dinners, cleaned up, etc. Place was spotless when they got back.

Some people on here are on another planet.

Theluggage15 · 17/10/2021 18:09

Social services!! Hahaha.

And as a safeguarding lead it’s got sfa to do with you. How pompous!

highlighta · 17/10/2021 18:14

I did leave my ds home alone for 2 weeks when I had to accompany my dd overseas. To be fair, he was 19 at the time so a bit older. He had the option to join us, but chose not to. He stayed home and he had friends come here to stay with him. They each stayed a night or two. No cameras in this house so I have no idea what they got up to, but the house was still standing (and surprisingly tidy) when we returned. The couch was broken though, and noone seemed to know how that happened. 😂 The drinks cabinet was a little worse off, but they still talk about their 'house sitting' time as it appears it was memorable.

One of their friends was studying to be a chef. He was asked to stay over more often than the others....

TrollsAreSaddos · 17/10/2021 18:26

Op YANBU. Ok, so it’s not ideal that nobody checked the passport but it’s hardly the end of the world. It’s an easy mistake to make and now that you’ve done it once you want ever do it again. A bit like when I put petrol in my deisel car 😅
If it was me and one of my kids when they were 15 I wouldn’t be the least bit concerned about them and I would be surprised if they didn’t mind being left at home. It’s just not a big deal. I wouldn’t read it as him disliking going in holiday with you just that he is happy to hang out with his friends fir a week.

Vulpius · 17/10/2021 18:38

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AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 17/10/2021 18:42

@blueshoes
We booked the hotel on booking.com. DH will call them tomorrow but again re: cancellations, not holding up much hope.

Almost all the booking.com bookings I have made in the past ten years or so have been possible to cancel/alter at twenty-four hours' notice, so you might be lucky there. Check what it says on any documentation you got at the time of booking, anyway. You might only have to ring the hotel and say "oops".

When I was fifteen I would have been utterly made up to get half term with my friends rather than a family holiday, and I am trying to remember how old my younger daughter was when she took off by rail (with a rail pass) with a friend all over Europe for three weeks in the summer. I think she may have been sixteen, because she's a May baby, but honestly, yes, my hair turned grey but I didn't stop her from going.

(She's fine. Doesn't seem to feel she wasn't loved enough, or whatever dire prognostications pearl-clutchers have about these things.)

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 17/10/2021 18:48

@Vulpius

Fascinating how a thread can come to mean something it never meant.

OP didn't ask "we're planning a family holiday and 15 yr old DS would rather stay with friends. WIBU to say yes?" Practically everyone would have said she was being completely reasonable.

What people are objecting to is the idea that - without any prior discussion - leaving the 15 yr old out of the holiday he was expecting to go on is the "obvious" solution to having failed to ensure that his passport was valid - rather than doing the thing that most parents would do, namely put it down to experience and not go at all. That's what people are regarding as unreasonable.

Vulpius What people are objecting to is the idea that - without any prior discussion -

That would be because they haven't read the thread, then. It is absolutely clear that there has been prior discussion -- OP's son has stated a preference, which is there hadn't been he couldn't have done.

I can't help feeling he's going to be disappointed if it turns out that OP can get him a passport in time after all. He's also going to feel a bit stupid after having planned things with his friends that he then has to cancel again.

rather than doing the thing that most parents would do, namely put it down to experience and not go at all

and deprive their dd of her holiday. But she clearly doesn't matter, does she. She can just suck up missing her holiday with her parents. Tsk.

sunglassesonthetable · 17/10/2021 18:49

Nope, you’re the one who told posters to “sit down”.

errr, so what?

I just reminded you that using capitals online is the same as shouting. You crack on if that’s how you want to communicate.

Thank you for 'reminding' me 🙄
Excellent work.

fabulous01 · 17/10/2021 18:55

We didn't realise until we were abroad!

I didn't worry.... like in all seriousness ... they would let you out if their country ... as they sure as heck don't want you there.

Honestly. We were fine

Vulpius · 17/10/2021 19:01

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TirednWorried · 17/10/2021 19:02

I think there needs to be one adult in overall charge rather than 7. A friend of mine did something similar and her dd told different adults she was with the other.she held a party in her empty house which got totally out of hand. Word got about and lots of uninvited guests came. £70k of damage was done to the house and the insurance would not pay out a penny

carebearbaby · 17/10/2021 19:05

Can you book a fake flight home for him on the day it expires? Pretend he is going home alone if you get grilled? Odds are that they will let you go if your passports are within the dates. Then once in Greece he will be able to get home..

LoveGrooveDanceParty · 17/10/2021 19:27

@Vulpius

Fascinating how a thread can come to mean something it never meant.

OP didn't ask "we're planning a family holiday and 15 yr old DS would rather stay with friends. WIBU to say yes?" Practically everyone would have said she was being completely reasonable.

What people are objecting to is the idea that - without any prior discussion - leaving the 15 yr old out of the holiday he was expecting to go on is the "obvious" solution to having failed to ensure that his passport was valid - rather than doing the thing that most parents would do, namely put it down to experience and not go at all. That's what people are regarding as unreasonable.

That’s not an obvious solution - at all….!?

Sure - if you have younger kids, then of course you’d have to cancel the holiday.

But why should they cancel the holiday, lose all that money and miss out on it all, when there’s an obvious alternative solution that everyone seems to be happy with?

You might not be happy with it, but with all due respect, you don’t really matter! Grin

Fernhilde · 17/10/2021 19:30

@StarlingDodd

I'm one of the now 11%. You and your family seem a pragmatic bunch who have discussed options. You're trying to get the passport, but your son has got an alternative that he's chosen and is happy with if it doesn't come in time. Plus if you can't get his passport renewed he gets to choose the destination of the next family holiday. Which, as you say, may well be the last as your children grow up and leave home.

I doubt he's going to end up in therapy when he's 40 because of this.

No, I'M Spartacus.
Pottedpalm · 17/10/2021 19:32

@ShuddaBeenMe

I'm sure one of the other parents will have the sense to let the school know. As a safeguarding lead we would want to know this and would absolutely investigate.

He's 15.

Surely you have better things to do?
balernobetty · 17/10/2021 19:35

"It is absolutely clear that there has been prior discussion"
@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime there had been no prior discussion, up until yesterday the DS thought he was going to Crete. He only came up with the plan to stay at 7 different friends homes when he was presented with the info that he wouldn't be going on holiday and at no point had the op checked this plan was ok with the actual parents who would be looking after her son

Fernhilde · 17/10/2021 19:47

It's all good OP. Your son will have a good time and hopefully you can let go of misplaced guilt for daring to make a mistake, and actually enjoy your holiday.

DeborahAnnabel · 17/10/2021 19:53

Are you going to Ikos Dassia? If so, it’s fabulous.

lionobserving · 17/10/2021 19:58

@blueshoes

Who are you expecting to look after him if he catches covid from one of the 7 houses he'll be staying at?

Yes, good point about covid. One of us will have come back then.

It's not as simple as this at the moment op. Having just come back from Greece, you have to do a lat flow within 48 hours of returning, and do the passenger locator etc. it's not as easy as leaving on the drop of a hat
AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 17/10/2021 20:02

Vulpius
I'm not at all of the view that their DD should miss her holiday, so your snarky little "tsk" is misplaced . I am, rather, of the view that the whole family should go together at a later date, as that's what they all originally wanted to do.

So all they have to do is change the half-term(s) of their children's school(s). Not a problem at all.

I don't know where you got "the whole family should go together at a later date, as that's what they all originally wanted to do." since the OP has nowhere suggested that they originally planned to go at a later date....

I can only go by what she has actually said:

"Ds has been given input into this situation and the possible solutions. He wants to stay with his friends instead of being able to come with us. He said he does not want the family to cancel their holiday over this f__k up which is not his fault."
and
"The one-friend-a-night was actually his decision, not ours, because he had so many friends message him back to say they wanted him over."
and
"We let ds decide."
and
" I judge ds to be capable of making his own decisions in this less-than-ideal situation and having those decisions respected"

He clearly knew what was going on as soon as the f__k-up had been discovered, and suggested a sensible way out of what a difficult situation. My hat is off to the lad, who clearly has the sense to see a clear way through a dilemma.

Mammyloveswine · 17/10/2021 20:09

I never understand how people don't check all this when booking a holiday Hmm

Anyway like others have said you still have time to apply for a quick passport.

MyPatronusIsAPenguin · 17/10/2021 20:14

I hope you get sorted tomorrow OP. But I hope you realise this holiday is going to have to be amazing otherwise you'll have a real life Kevin The Teenager muttering he'd have had a better time at home Grin

I know someone suggested him joining you later, he might just say the passport didn't arrive in time anyway!!

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