To not send my children to school because I need to fly ?

We don't know how frequent the work trips away actually are. It could just be unfortunate and that they have had two trips away within a short period and that might now be it for the rest of the year.

We also don't know the age of the children to know how much of a problem missing two weeks of school will be. Also if staying with the gran what this will be like e.g. some posters saying the gran can't stay with them because of work, in which case who is going to look after them. I would find the social aspect more worrying than the academic, surely the children will miss the routine and seeing their friends. I think some people have some idillic view that the grandchildren are going to have a wonderful two week holiday, which they may, or else they might be with a grandparent they don't see or know that well, unable to do much and stuck indoors.

I don't know why so many are siding with the burnt out parent. Looking after children every day is what a lot of parents do, especially single parents, and they don't all go round claiming burn out.

If it was a holiday people would be less concerned.

But we have one parent whose mental health is apparently so bad that they are not safe to be around the children, and another parent who couldn’t care less and is off on a jolly with work, and seemingly spends very little time in the same country as the children anyway. The kids are being shipped off to granny who lives two hours away, and may or may not have much of a relationship with the children - given the parent related to her rarely sees the children, it seems unlikely the granny has maintained a close and loving bond with them either.

All of that would be concerning in the school holidays as well. Honestly shipping the kids off to boarding school would probably be less traumatic for them, and I rarely have anything good to say about boarding school.

Enrol your kids in a school near your mother for the two weeks.
Move to her neighbourhood and have your kids permanently change schools.

The op is living for now he/she is not thinking about the future. From what he/she has posted they are in and out of their lives he's not only estranged from his/her ex he/she is also estranged from his/her children.

One day the op will get old what attitude is he/she teaching them. He/she will get the same treatment and will be handed to someone else for them to look after and take care of them in a care home. Leaving all the care responsibilities to his/her ex or mum is shocking and they will regret it. I hope you work it out soon op.

This makes more sense. The op might work in the corporate world and travel a lot.

My partner worked in this world every year the fear of redundancies. He retrained in gas while he was working FOR THEM. He now works for himself and gets paid more money and he's at home a lot more. He doesn't work in the gas world he kept on reskilling until he found his niche. That's what the op needs to do it's all fair and well relying on working for someone but they can draw the carpet at anytime. Then the op is left to build the relationship with his family.

so important. so busy, lol.

Can granny come to your home and stay there with the kids, to make sure they get to school each day? I really wouldn't care that much for one two week holiday with granny, but they can have something of that and still go to school.

I wouldn't be taking them to school in granny's place, unless in their home. Presume that's a four hour round trip? No way.

Yes you can. Have done it. Sometimes life happens. Either you do your keynote remotely by video, or they go to a back up.

Do not be sensible for goodness sake. This is unallowed.

There army is made up of much more than the soldiers.

Okay, call that a duplicate then. Let's add offshore to the list instead 🙄

I was obviously mistaken in my previous post.

You're basically saying your ex has had the kids for 2 weeks and found that too hard and now doesn't want to do another 2 weeks and/or doesn't want to accomodate your job travelling which seems to be very frequent. 2 weeks at a time, so half a month, except it would be almost a full month this time because you only got back at the weekend.

Can't say I'd be thrilled about it if I was the ex either. You need to find a job where you're not travelling as much and you need to share the parenting load and spend time with your kids.

Some research / science / medical / academics. Granted, two weeks is too long for a conference, but you can't just reschedule being a keynote speaker.

The only way around this mess is to homeschool your children. Take them off the school register. Then they can't send you any fines or threaten prison. In the future when you need to go away you can leave a home education box of work books for granny to get on with. You can hire tutors. This short term option may be the best one for now until you and the other parent has sorted yourselfs out.

I have a friend whose husband was called away On Very Important Business with only a few days notice.

he could have been away for 12months. In the end it was only 9months. Phew.

Mum also has a very big job with long days and occasional travel.

thank goodness grandparents were available to basically move in for half the week every week for those 9 months.

paid Nannies can do so much but they cannot fill all the gaps. Especially if you are a Fairly normally paid family

Since when?
Even I was threatened once. When my daughter was off school sick for a week they emailed to say they would be coming to my house if she wasn't back in school on Monday. Two weeks is perfectly fine since when?

How old are your kids OP?

fwiw when I was a kid my sibling and I missed a few weeks of school because no relative was available to stay at our home and enable it whilst our parents were busy.

we were still primary age. We had a lovely time with our relatives but yes we missed several weeks of school.

we both have excellent careers now. So it didn’t stop us getting a good enough education.

needs must at the end of the day OP.

you must wonder if you are mad having a job which means you cannot be there so your kids miss school, when the other parent is too burnt out to deal with them.

depending what your role and situation is you may wish to consider taking unpaid parental leave next time. Or sick leave.

Hope everyone is ok and things work out.

or you can move closer to relatives in future.

take good care of you and yours.

You do realise the op will be fined for each day they miss and threatend with prison if it continues?
This is a ridiculous situation to be in.

Its totally fine.

They will pay a hefty fine for each day they are not in school. I hope it's worth it. Granny better be a good liar when she calls the school tomorrow.

Because they’re 2 hours away!!!

Getting another job can be easier said than done and takes time.
No guarantee this poster is salaried and able to take time of, for many no work = no pay.
So many in the UK are only a few pay checks from crisis.

I think he's a bit stuck now unless he can get kids and granny to his house nearer the school. Assuming Granny doesn't need to work too.

Op can they get to your house by train or worse case taxi?

So your children will be spending two weeks with your mum? And you’ve already been working away for weeks. Have the children been with their dad up until now? Being off school for a couple of days won’t hurt, but two weeks is completely different, and will you be working away in future? As others have said, can your mum come and stop with the children at your house? But long term you will surely need to find another solution work wise.

Sometimes needs must, if the choice is travel or be made redundant then travel it is.

And it's not always worth while moving the family because the jobs only going to be a year or two.

Get another job she can't do it if it means her children will be neglected. The LA will issue her a fine and possibly court action. She will most likely get a visit from SS to check on the welfare of her children. She needs to sort out her priorities and find work that fits around them. If she didn't want the responsibility of looking after children she shouldn't have had them.

I'll add, oil industry, men on rigs or working in middle east.
Construction, you'd be surprised how many Construction jobs involve travel, inc those on Nuclear Power stations, and other infrastructure projects, roads, powerlines, railways.
People who work on merchant ships bringing stuff to the UK

I'm sure there must be more