The Influence Of A Mother

My mother is one of the biggest influences in my life. In fact, I can only recall 4 times in my entire 42 years that I went with my own intuition and didn't heed her advice. A lot has to do with the fact that my mom is fiercly protective of her family and praying for our well being and safety is one of the biggest priorities in her life. She is extremely selfless and always put others before herself and she worries more for others than herself. During her months and months of breast cancer surgeries and treatments, her first questions would always be how the children and I were doing! I think being an only child has allowed us to have a very close relationship plus we only had each other to count on during the years of incredible adversity/abuse. So you can see why I give heed when she speaks her mind. I'm not going to lie and she will agree with this, sometimes her concerns are a little overboard to where even my daughter will ask me not to "tell Gaga because I don't want her to worry!" :) But, that is all part of being a mom and my mom takes her role very seriously, no matter how old I am! Anyway, the whole subject of traveling to Scotland is not boding well with my mother and yes, after she shared her list of fears I admit, I'm terrified to go! Here is her list: 1) Choosing to travel alone internationally as a woman is one of the worst things/decisions a woman can make. 2) It is too dangerous to travel at the holidays because the threat of terrorism increases due to more people traveling. 3) A bomb might go off in flight 4) It isn't wise to leave family for 8 days 5) I might end up in a Scottish dive bar and someone will slip me a rufie because I am an American woman. (By the way, does afternoon tea at the 5 Star Balmoral Hotel count as a dive bar?) Just curious.... 6) I may get stuck in the country because of being robbed/losing my passport and luggage. 7) The plane may crash leaving my children motherless. 8) I might get stuck in Holland because of missing a connecting flight 9) I won't have cell and/or internet capabilities. 10) Somehow winding up at the Israeli/Palestinian border 11) Not considering the consequences safety wise regarding such a trip. It is possible that my 4 instances of NOT heeding her advice may NOT increase to 5!