A viral essay by an American mother has ignited an online debate after she chose to board a flight to Turks and Caicos without her 21-year-old daughter, who forgot to bring her passport.In an essay for Business Insider, Cheryl Maguire described the decision as a lesson in accountability.The mother-daughter getaway had been planned as a nostalgic trip, with the pair hoping to recreate photos from vacations they had taken together on the Caribbean island over the years.However, moments before departure, Maguire’s daughter, who lives in New York City, realised she had left her passport at her apartment. Since they were flying out of Boston, there was no way to retrieve the document without missing the flight and losing thousands of dollars spent on non-refundable tickets and reservations.Faced with the choice of cancelling the holiday or travelling alone, Maguire decided to continue with the trip.”I felt bad about going without her, especially since she was so excited to see all the changes to the resort she had been going to since she was only a year old,” she wrote. “But I was also excited for the trip down memory lane, even if that meant going without her.”Maguire admitted she felt guilty about leaving her daughter behind but said the 21-year-old has a long history of being forgetful.”It became such an issue that I wrote an article about it for The New York Times. The main takeaway from the experts was that, instead of letting forgetful kids suffer, help them develop strategies so it doesn’t happen again,” she wrote.”I only gave her one reminder to pack the passport, but now I’m wondering if I should’ve provided a few more since I missed having her on the trip with me,” Maguire wrote.Netizens react:One user said, “21 is old enough to be responsible for her own passport. It is not the mother’s fault if the daughter forgets it; nor should the mother be compelled to forego her own vacation because of her adult daughter’s oversight?”Another commented, “Good decision. They need to be held accountable for their actions.”Others, however, felt family should come before a vacation. They argued that a parent should have stayed behind to support their distressed child and help resolve the situation, describing Maguire’s decision as unnecessarily harsh and lacking compassion.A third wrote, “Isn’t the whole point of the trip to spend time together? Guess if you are rich and spend all your time together and daughter is irresponsible, there could be a valuable lesson, but she also learned when you screw up your famiky ditches you to prioritize pleasure.”