This is going to be a stressful roadtrip!

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Welcome back to another episode of Am I A Bad Mom? Podcast? School Holidays?

I know it is school holidays.

Do your girls get two weeks up?

Two solid two weeks.

And the first week is going to be camping?

With that?

Yes, Honestly, the ordeal of getting ready to go camping is another whole world in itself.

See, this is the thing. So it's great that he's taking them camping. They're going to have a great time dad daughter bonding time. You can have some time for yourself. But that lead up to camping in the organization and everything that they need. Yeah, the packing, I'm assuming that will be down to you. And then afterwards when they get home, that's a big job as well. I know, wash everything, it will be muddy.

I think this is normal, isn't it? Like I get a bit anxious with the idea that they're going to be going off. What if they're not warm enough? What?

Like?

You know, yeah, what can I control? I'm not there.

Yeah, but it's different because it's not like they're going with friends.

They're going with dad. Yeah, I know. Woman Sometimes Yeah, they.

Will tell they're old enough. I say, Dad, I'm freezing. Give me your jumper.

Yeah, I'll do that. Yeah, I hope. So because dad runs hot, you know what's going to happen.

So, yes, they will get cold. And then next thing, you know, so he's got a swag for himself, hasn't it a double Yeah? And then the girls have got a swag.

Yes, there's three swags.

Yeah, so they're going to be in with him. He's going to be in the double swag, three of them together. They'll be nice and warm. He'll be too hot.

So I have like this little I guess it's a confession. Elsie has hustled a tent because she's desperate to go camping in a tent. Right, you have to have a tent because she hustled our neighbor. It's like a twelve man tent. So now Elsie's got this tent at home and her idea. So I'm not putting any dampner on this. So I said, yes, babe, if that's what you want to.

Do, you do it.

Whatever you want, You do whatever you.

Want, build that tent.

So she's like, Mum, I'm going to make the tent and then I'm putting my swag inside the tent. And she said, I did not like sleeping in a swag only. I need something around me. I need to feel safe. And I was like, oh, that's great, and then Sam chimes in, no, you don't do that.

I said, she can do whatever she wants. She's camping.

She's going to have this great, big twelve man tent with.

Her swag on the intie.

I have put up a tent with kids before, right, and it is not an easy job.

I think that's why Sam would be saying we're not doing a tent, because.

He would be way too.

It might work, but is going to rain next week?

I don't know. I haven't looked from you know what.

I even tried on my own with my cats.

You know what I would right to do? Make him take the dogs.

Two kids, two dogs, see you later, just me and my cat.

I was like, oh, look, it's dog friendly. You should take the dogs.

With you too. He's like, I'm not taking the fucking dogs.

Am I a bad mum for going to extreme lengths Now?

I feel like at the moment Katie is like this on the daily.

Yeah, well you'll get there. You're not at this stage yet. But my girls are driving witch. I love it. Whenever I speak to anybody with sixteen year olds, I'll go, how are you going, how's everything going? Yeah? Good? Apart from the driving. It is literally I even messaged a friend in the UK last night, how's everything else going?

Yeah?

Girls are good avers driving And then one of those like scared emojis.

I don't know how you do it.

Actually, I thought of this the other day because there was this poor child and I say child because we drove past said child driving honestly looked like they looked like they were twelve, and they were driving this learner car. The look on the instructor's face alone gave off that this particular child had probably never driven a vehicle in their life.

And that's his job. He does that every day with me.

Could you imagine how high alert you would be for your entire life if you were getting into cars.

Yeah, that would be the worst job for your nervous system, dual control, You've still got to be on the ball.

I can't imagine it. I am the worst passenger ever.

So what's going on with the girls?

And this is the thing, right, they're pretty good drivers. Holly has done more hours than Amelia, so she's I'm almost relaxed with her driving now, apart from this morning when she needed to turn left and then hop in the right lane because we were going into a car park, which was literally just as we turn, she's gone around the corner so fast she hasn't. I was like, you've got to get over to that lane. Look, the turning is here. We're at the turning and it's like that

Oh my gosh.

I was literally in my head just about to say the same thing, why don't you drive to Sydney?

But then I was thinking, like, Sydney is technically.

A nine hour drive, right, yeah, but then you wouldn't be able to allow her to drive the full nine hours, So then technically you'd never get that she'll be too tired.

So maybe we switch it up and they do half and half. Yeah, like a couple of hours each at a time.

Yeah.

I would be going, like, you do two hours, now, you do two hours. There, you do two hours.

So literally they get half half and then on the way. Same thing.

In my mind, I wanted to go down to Sydney anyway, and I was having a look at flights and at school holidays, and nothing seemed very cheap. And it didn't even cross my mind until we were talking about driving. Hang any year hours up, we'll go up to now, so we'll drive down to the Gold Coast. And then I went, oh my god, it was like a lightbulb moment. It's like, we wanted to go to Sydney. Flight's pretty expensive.

I can't wait to hear the stories. I can't wait.

And I've done that. I've driven down to Sydney before. We did it for Taylor Swift. Remember, Yeah, but flights were going to.

Be petrol with petrol or electric that.

Was electric too. The flights were going to be about four grand to get to Sydney. Sydney's an hour away. It was going to be the same price that we paid to go to Hawaii last year to Sydney. And I was absolutely I am not spending that on flights. So we drove down. That horrible that they can even do that, Yeah, do you reckon?

Ye?

Should be a law, it should be.

There should be a law in that, because that is wild.

You can't just do that because there's one person playing a Yeah, it's because it's so horrible.

In COVID, Oh, we all bailed out the airlines look at them laughing now charging four times the price for flights.

And four thousand dollars to fly an hour.

No, so okay, that's good plan in motion driving to Sydney.

How long you in.

Sydney for a few days enough to recover the anxiety to then return home with the girls driving?

So let's say nine hours each?

Yeah, takes you thirty forty Yeah?

Get all these hours? How do you get them?

We have to do a few trips out of Sydney.

You just might as well drive around Australia still driving. Where are they still driving? Reporting?

That's a lot there's a lot of hours. Yeah, it's a lot of hours for a poor nervous that's what I'm meaning, mother, Mother.

That is a long, mighty mighty long trip to Sydney.

It felt like the obvious solution. I'm a little nervous about it now, I'm really because you know that there's the same rules. So as a passenger in the passenger seat for me, I've got the same rules as being the driver. So I can't pick up my phone.

You just got to sit there and stare out the window.

Yeah, as if I'm driving, I've got a second pair of eyes. It's as if I'm driving, honestly rage. I remember calling out the insurance company when they started driving, saying, do I have to inform you that my child is now driving?

No?

No, it's like we're class it as you driving. If she has an accident, it's you. I was like, it's a lot pressure.

Oh my gosh, so phone.

Down, phone down, eyes up, eyes.

Up, con alert on herd control.

Shit though from the other side of the car, on more alert than if I was driving.

This is going to be the longest trip to Sydney you've ever taken.

Yeah, it really is.

Nine hours with no fine.

Yeah, what do we say? Full ground for flights