We hadn’t been abroad for four years. Our son had been a bad traveller and a bad sleeper, and we hadn’t wanted to risk a flight – the prospect of a screeching two-year-old, and the disapproval of other passengers, was not enticing.

This summer, though, seemed the right time to head to foreign climes once again, although Mallorca is hardly a challenging destination. We boarded our Easyjet flight last week confident that all would be well.

For those of you expecting a “but”, well there isn’t one really. Our children – eight and three – neither puked nor were overly obnoxious during the journey; the plane was on time and we touched down in Palma in 30-degree heat. It was only when I got out our passports to hand to the polite but disinterested border control guard that it hit me: not only would this be our last European holiday as EU members; for my son it would be his only one.

For a definite Remainer, that is an oddly dispiriting thought: a shared European endeavour of decades, thrown to the wolves (as far as Britain is concerned anyway) on the promise of restoring a level of sovereignty that makes practically zero difference to most people’s lives. Meanwhile, generations who have not had a chance to benefit from EU educational programmes, shared intelligence efforts and tariff-free trade, not to mention short queues at airports, might one day wonder what their parents and grandparents were thinking of.

August Bank Holiday travel chaos

Before I am taken to task for being a “snowflake”, or a “libtard” or any of the other epithets granted to “remoaners” like me (see below the line for more, quite possibly), I should say that I quite accept that the EU was and is flawed in a great many ways. I have seen European institutions up close and personal and they are frequently a bureaucratic quagmire. The national characteristics of member states often prove stereotypically correct to the extent that reaching agreement on minor matters is nightmarish.

For what it’s worth, I suspect too that, in the long run, Britain will be broadly alright outside the EU. People will suffer along the way – possibly those who can least afford to – but most Leavers seem to accept that price for departing. We will probably have less clout internationally. But we’ll get by, thanks in part to an appetite for hard work on the part of a decent proportion, a dab of ingenuity and a continuing supply of immigrant labour (it’s not going to end, you know).

All the same, we would – I feel quite sure – have been better off sticking where we were: even allowing for the fact that the world is a more uncertain place now than it was in 2016, the EU is arguably more stable. By the by, I suppose it’s possible that the fateful day may not actually come.

What then will I tell my son in years to come. That Britain took a wrong turn? Of course if things work out better than expected I’ll tell him I was wrong and be glad of it.

Or will I just ignore all that and remind him that on his first trip abroad he refused to go in the swimming pool because it was too cold; that he and his sister behaved like a pair of chumps in the supermarket, causing a charming Spanish man to give their mother some words of consolation (in English of course); that he wouldn’t finish a single meal (”too chewy”, “don’t like it”) but banged on constantly about needing another sweet; that he refused to accept a teddy bear from the delightful holiday rep, instead shouting “got you” at the poor man.

Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Show all 20 1 /20 Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos epa06909130 Passengers stand at the desk of the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair during the first day of strike of the company's cabin crew members at El Prat airport in Barcelona, northeastern Spain, 25 July 2018. Ryanair has given a forewarning of potential dismissals for more than 100 pilots and 200 employees based in Dublin, to whom it will be offered the possibility of being transferred to Poland or other locations. EPA/Quique Garcia Quique Garcia EPA Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair airline workers shout slogans during a small protest during the first of two days of a cabin crew strike at Adolfo Suarez-Barajas international airport in Madrid in July AP Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Empty Ryanair check-in counter at El Prat airport in Barcelona AFP/Getty Images Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair employees hold up signs in English and Spanish on the first day of a cabin crew strike in Palma de Mallorca REUTERS Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair airplanes stand idle on the tarmac EPA Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Irish Ryanair pilots outside the company headquarters at Swords in Dublin, as they stage their fourth one-day strike with their union, Forsa PA Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos A woman sits at a Ryanair airline check-in desk after her flight to Pisa, Italy, was cancelled AP Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair employees protest at the entrance of the airport in Malaga REUTERS Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Stranded Ryanair passengers line up for information at the airport in Valencia REUTERS Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Employees of Ryanair's customer service department wear T-shirts with a slogan 'Ryanair Must Change' during the first day of strike of the company's cabin crew members at Brussels South airport in Charleroi, Belgium, in 25 EPA Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Cabin crew workers for low-cost airline Ryanair went on strike in four European countries over working conditions in July, forcing thousands of passengers to make last-minute travel adjustments at the peak of the summer holiday season REUTERS Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary addresses a news conference in Schwechat, Austria Reuters Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair employees hold up signs at the airport in Palma de Mallorca REUTERS Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Passengers check in at Ryanair counters for their flights at Lisbon's airport, Portugal July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante RAFAEL MARCHANTE REUTERS Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos People queue at the Ryanair airline customer service desk during the first of two days cabin crew strike AP Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair personnel stand at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, during a strike of cabin personnel AFP/Getty Images Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair's customer service department gather behind a banner reading: 'Ryanair On Strike - Respect Us! Ryanair must change' at Brussels South airport, in Charleroi, Belgium EPA Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Passengers wait in line in front of Ryanair's desks EPA Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair planes at Valencia airport, during a protest on the first day of a cabin crew strike held in several European countries REUTERS Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos A passenger tries to get informations on Ryanair flights EPA

As it turns out, a holiday with a three-year-old is a holiday with a three-year-old, wherever you go, irrespective of Brexit or very much else. Regular chants involving the word “poo” are tedious inside and outside the EU. Similarly, when he looks as pleased as punch at having climbed to the top of the nearest mountain, knowing what shenanigans are afoot in Brussels doesn’t seem especially important.

For a bit of light holiday reading, I had brought with me Robert Harris’s Munich. Before the novel’s opening chapter is a quote from the historian FW Maitland: “We should always be aware that what now lies in the past once lay in the future.”