# Kids and PCD



## barbja (Jul 20, 2003)

I haven't seen this topic discussed in quite a while, so I want to take a stab at it:

I have a PCD scheduled on 6/10 (the X5 35d's are released, yay!). My sister is going with me. Originally she was going to be able to drive back with me, but now she can't; we had all thought it was going to be earlier in the year, but now its not and them's the breaks. She's going to round-trip it and I'll drive back.

I would like to bring my 9 year old son to drive back with me to Texas. Does anyone have any bright ideas for what I could do to accomplish this feat short of:

1) round-tripping my ex-husband hang with him for the day (and how fun do you think THAT would be for me?)
2) leaving him in the hotel room by himself (um, no)
3) sitting with him in the cafeteria all day (I could stay home and do that)
4) flying him in unaccompanied after the PCD (he won't do that)

Any ideas?


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## thumper_330 (Jan 3, 2009)

I think the only realistic option you have is #4. If you can leave him with family or friends in Texas and then have them put him on the plane a day or so later... then you pick him up at the other end. The only caveat is of course a non-stop flight and I'm not sure what those are like from your area.

Seems to me your best route would be to go and do the PCD, then drive to Atlanta to pick up your son from the airport, there... drive the rest of the way home with him from there. Maybe after a night at an hotel in Atlanta... or even a weekend away with Mom. 

Believe me I know how tough this is. I have a 9 year old son as well (well, he'll be 10 this month... I feel old...) but in my case I know I could put him on a flight as an unaccompanied minor. Believe me, the airlines are actually awesome with kids that young. So long as they have something to entertain them they're usually good... I bought mine a Nintendo DS last year for his birthday for exactly those kinds of eventualities


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## The Other Tom (Sep 28, 2002)

thumper_330 said:


> The only caveat is of course a non-stop flight and I'm not sure what those are like from your area.


Both Dallas (AA) and Houston (Continental) have non stops to Greenville. None from Austin, though.


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## barbja (Jul 20, 2003)

*I think I may have found a solution*

After some research, I found that there is a YMCA 10 miles from the Mariott in Greenville. I can send him to a day camp there that runs 7:30am to 6pm. I'll have to pay for the whole week ($125 + $50 registration), but that's a lot less than the almost $500 it will cost to have my ex fly him over (not to mention the aggravation). If I have the hotel run us over there for me to drop him off at 7:30, I should be back for the bus to BMW by 8am.

Two things:

1) If it were a direct flight, I think he'd be ok with flying unaccompanied. I think both he and I have a problem with the layovers in this case. He can still be a handful under my supervision during a layover -- who knows what he'd be like without it! 
2) He's used to going to full day day camps during the summer. I may not be so up with the idea if he weren't. He's always uncomfortable with the first few days of camp but his argument of "but I won't know anyone there" (read that with the appropriate whine) didn't fly since it would have basically been his first day of camp anyway since its the first full week of summer break. (And let me tell you -- it REALLY worked in my favor that he wouldn't let me leave him last year on the first day when he saw that there was no one he knew, I was on vacation that day, so I didn't care one way or the other but -- "do you remember last year..." HA)

For anyone else searching for this in the future, here is the YMCA site. They take 1st through 5th grade. Once they're in 6th grade, they're old enough to go to the plant, right? Mine will be 12 by then; perhaps it will be time for a new car!

http://www.ymcagreenville.org/child_care.php


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