6 months ago I bought tickets to an afternoon & evening event on a Sunday. I have 2 secondary school age DC & their Dad (my exH) was going to look after them as they are usually with me overnight in a Sunday. He then decided to go on holiday over that time & I arranged for the DC to stay at their Grandparents who live locally. On the Monday morning they’ll get up & go to school from there (which is a very short distance).
My eldest DC has twice now argued with me for over half a hour saying I shouldn’t have arranged something for a Sunday night as I know they don’t like being away on a Sunday night. This is as they don’t like taking all their things for school to another house (which they do without complaint once a week on another night) & being at my house on a Sunday night sets them up for the week (mine was the main family home & all they remembers).
I do know this and this will be the first (and currently only planned) time this will have happened this year. Also over the 2 week holiday this will be the only night away from me.
The tickets are for a one off event with 6 out of about 8 acts that I’m really keen to see. It is far enough away that I can’t get back before they need to be in bed & I decided to take time off work so I could extend it to have time away on Monday daytime but be back for the end of school on Monday.
My youngest DC isn’t too bothered but did also argue with me briefly after the eldest DC complained to them.
Context- ExH left years ago & it is amicable, DC split their time 4nights me / 3 nights Dad. He goes abroad on holiday a handful of times a year & then I mostly look after the DC but they go to local Grandparents for any existing commitments I have. They have a good relationship with Grandparents & see them at least weekly for an hour or so. Grandparents looked after them for a day a week before they started school.
YANBU - a parent is allowed to do something for themselves occasionally even if it puts out their child
YABU - the wants of a child always come before a parents