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AIBU?

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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:
NeverForgetYourDreams · 19/10/2021 22:36

I seem to have the only 15 year old who actually wants to come on a holiday with us.

I went with my parents til I was about 19 and now as an adult I also still go away with my mum sometimes just the two of us

What's wrong with teens wanting to actually spend some of their time with their parents. Surely a healthy balance of friends and family is important. DS doesn't spend all his time with us because that would be odd but he does enjoy doing family stuff still.

After not being away since summer 2019 he would be upset at not being included ..

londonmummy1966 · 19/10/2021 22:43

@Peregrina OK but you are discussing an 11 year old raised in a big city with a 15/16 year old not raised thus. My point was that it is not negligent to expect a 16 year old to be able to find their way around a big city they are not used to when we expect an 11 year old who lives there to do so. For some reason or other you think that is unreasonable but haven't yet explained why. Personally I think there is something wrong with the parenting that hasn't taught a 16 year old to read a map.....

Siameasy · 19/10/2021 23:33

Jesus no wonder so many teens have anxiety when they’re treated like babies and not allowed to do anything due to anxious parents over estimating risk. So grateful to have grown up in a different era.

whynotwhatknot · 20/10/2021 11:40

I didnt go on holidays around that age it depends where my parents wwent some werent interesting to me so i stayed home

shinynewapple21 · 20/10/2021 13:59

Think you've misunderstood the whole point of the thread @Siameasy GrinGrin

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 20/10/2021 18:22

Wasn't that someone trying to find out whether she'd be able to get her son's passport renewed by Friday?

Abraxan · 20/10/2021 21:58

It's all so odd. Most 15-year-olds I know would much rather hang out with their mates than go on a family holiday. I actually think it's a bit weird that the 18 and 15 year olds were invited/included in the first place - I certainly wasn't going on family holidays with my parents at that age!

You see, I find that more odd. And really quite sad. A 15y no longer invited on a family holiday. An 18y not being invited. Surely they should at least get the invitation as a minimum.

And not all teenagers hate spending time with parents.
And most 18y I know are happy to have the cheaper party holiday with their mates, but still enjoy a holiday with the family - often staying somewhere nicer, better accommodation - and all expenses paid for them!

All of 19y DD's friends have holidayed with family in the last few years. Many are doing so this year too. A number of our friends children still go on holiday with them, in addition to their own mates holiday, despite being early 20s.

Infact we are off this weekend in holiday with 19y Dd. She was given the open. She jumped at it - has reading week at university, so not kissing any lectures, etc. We have some fab places booked for food and drink, a fabulous sounding wine and dine experience, she has eyed up the mixology course she wants us to do at the hotel resort. We have a series of places we all want to visit in the area. What's not for her to like - free holiday to a place she wants to go!

We actually enjoy spending time together and we are all looking forward to the week away. Long may it continue.

Abraxan · 20/10/2021 22:06

Lightisnotwhite

For many people it has been quite a while since they've been abroad for a long while due to the pandemic. Many haven't been abroad since the rules changed and haven't needed to think about the rule changed,. However lots of people will still have in their head the rough expiry dates of their passports but it's very easy to forget the rule, since Brexit rule, re 3-6m needed, when you've not ad to do it before.

It's not like it's been a year of very easy travel and right now there is already so much else to have to organise if trying to go abroad!

And regardless of all that - my response was regarding another poster claiming the change in passport expiry validity was nothing to do with Brexit. Regardless of organisation, the OP's comment was simply is not true. Prior to Brexit this rule did not exist for EU countries. It is only due to Brexit that we now have this rule.

Inastatus · 20/10/2021 22:45

@Abraxan

It's all so odd. Most 15-year-olds I know would much rather hang out with their mates than go on a family holiday. I actually think it's a bit weird that the 18 and 15 year olds were invited/included in the first place - I certainly wasn't going on family holidays with my parents at that age!

You see, I find that more odd. And really quite sad. A 15y no longer invited on a family holiday. An 18y not being invited. Surely they should at least get the invitation as a minimum.

And not all teenagers hate spending time with parents.
And most 18y I know are happy to have the cheaper party holiday with their mates, but still enjoy a holiday with the family - often staying somewhere nicer, better accommodation - and all expenses paid for them!

All of 19y DD's friends have holidayed with family in the last few years. Many are doing so this year too. A number of our friends children still go on holiday with them, in addition to their own mates holiday, despite being early 20s.

Infact we are off this weekend in holiday with 19y Dd. She was given the open. She jumped at it - has reading week at university, so not kissing any lectures, etc. We have some fab places booked for food and drink, a fabulous sounding wine and dine experience, she has eyed up the mixology course she wants us to do at the hotel resort. We have a series of places we all want to visit in the area. What's not for her to like - free holiday to a place she wants to go!

We actually enjoy spending time together and we are all looking forward to the week away. Long may it continue.

Love this and totally agree with you @Abraxan. I hope you have a lovely holiday.
22Giraffes · 20/10/2021 23:51

@Roundlampshade

Did the OP get the passport in time?
That's what I want to know!
Workinghardeveryday · 21/10/2021 12:07

Probably not and didn’t want the backlash from here.

Can’t believe she is doing it!! Poor kid

23minutesfromTulseHill · 21/10/2021 12:19

Yesterday (Weds) was the very earliest the passport could have arrived, given that the appointment was on Tuesday. Today is more likely.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 21/10/2021 12:34

@blueshoes

Also, if I was one of the kids parents and you got in contact with me asking for me to put your son up for x amount of time because you're away on a family holiday without him id be judging you massively.

No more than I am being judged now, so I guess I will just lump it. They can always say no. At this age, it is not so much parent-to-parent as son-to-parent. My son's friends would be asking their parents for ds to come over and the parents, if they agree, get in touch for logistics. Dcs are mostly independent and don't require much looking after. I speak in the position of the parent if my ds brings a friend home for a sleepover. They usually order a pizza.

Thinking back to when my dses were teenagers - if one of their friends had wanted to come and stay, in similar circumstances to yours, instead of going on a family holiday, I would have had no problem with that whatsoever - and I wouldn't have judged the parents, either! The only problem for me would have been the extra dose of Lynx enveloping the house every morning. WinkGrin

Seriously, though - I don't think you are doing anything wrong, or judgement-worthy here. The passport thing is a mistake, but it is not a hard mistake to make - dbil nearly had to miss a once-in-a-lifetime holiday with his mum, because his passport was out of date. The holiday was once in a lifetime not because of the destination, but because MIL was terminally ill. Dbil had done a lot of the caring after surgery etc, and taking her to appointments, because he was local to her, and we were hundreds of miles away, and she wanted to have this last, special week with him.

In the end, his passport renewal ended up going to Newcastle (he was in the South of England), and he couldn't get up to the office in Newcastle to collect it, so we had to get a letter of authorisation from him for dh to pick it up, then dh gave it to ds1, who went down by train and handed it over to dbil.

Cameleongirl · 21/10/2021 15:18

@NeverForgetYourDreams

I seem to have the only 15 year old who actually wants to come on a holiday with us.

I went with my parents til I was about 19 and now as an adult I also still go away with my mum sometimes just the two of us

What's wrong with teens wanting to actually spend some of their time with their parents. Surely a healthy balance of friends and family is important. DS doesn't spend all his time with us because that would be odd but he does enjoy doing family stuff still.

After not being away since summer 2019 he would be upset at not being included ..

i think some teenagers go through a phase when they don't want to holiday with their parents, but they often get over it and are happy to in later years.

I stopped going away with my parents at15 and went on holiday with them again at 19. I'In between, I preferred to go youth hostelling and interrailing with friends. I was ready to do my own thing and it was great that my parents let me get on with it...the first youth hostelling trip at 15 was only about 10 miles from home, but we thought it was a huge adventure. One of us had to be collected by his Dad as he got sunburn!

DdraigGoch · 21/10/2021 16:25

@Workinghardeveryday

Probably not and didn’t want the backlash from here.

Can’t believe she is doing it!! Poor kid

Poor kid? Having a whale of a time with his mates instead of being stuck at home feeling guilty that the rest of the family are missing a holiday because they feel sorry for him.
Asleanna · 22/10/2021 13:41

Dying to know if passport arrived 🙏

Original poster
blueshoes · 22/10/2021 21:48

Hi, another update. Ds is with us in Crete!

It was a miracle we managed by the skin of our teeth to receive ds' passport in the post on Thursday midday. Then had to scramble around for a same day PCR test because ds is not double-jabbed. We rushed down to a local lab testing centre for a Randox covid-19 PCR test to be received by midnight - this is the absolute last day before we flew at 8 am today. Would have been a dark comedy if ds ended up testing positive. Happily we received the negative PCR test results at 10 pm yesterday. Yay! Packed and left for the airport early this morning and almost did not make it to the airport because the satnav directed us wrongly and we made another 2 wrong turns. Legged it to security and ran to the departure gates and were one of the last few on the plane. And breathe!

Thank you UK passport office £112 and local lab £114. They saved us. Please everybody, check your passports have enough time left on them before booking travel. Ds' friends mums were so lovely about me asking them to host ds and then my pulling out at the last minute. It restores my faith.

PS Crete (Heralkion airport) could not care less. They barely glanced at the PCR tests and did not even check our passports on arrival - there was no immigration! We walked straight from the plane, through the airport and into the taxi. But I suspect Ryanair would not have let us check in if ds' passport did not have enough time left.

Appreciate everyone's input on this thread.

OP posts:
Stopsnowing · 22/10/2021 21:49

So pleased!

madisonbridges · 22/10/2021 21:53

Well done. Enjoy your holiday, you lucky thing!

spurs4ever · 22/10/2021 21:56

That's great news. Glad you're all together and enjoy your holiday.

23minutesfromTulseHill · 22/10/2021 21:56

Blimey! Seat of the pants stuff. Have a lovely holiday with Kevin the teenager all the family.

AlmostAlwyn · 22/10/2021 21:57

What are great update! I'm glad it all worked out for you in the end! Though I guess DS is a bit disappointed to be in Crete Wink

Abraxan · 22/10/2021 22:00

Have a great holiday!
Bet you've never needed one so much after this week.

Enjoy the sun ☀️

rookiemere · 22/10/2021 22:25

@blueshoes what a great ending. Have an amazing holiday Smile

Cheeseplantboots · 22/10/2021 22:55

Ah fantastic news!