Well am I? My ex is an absolute arse.

Woman here!
Sounds like you are a pillock, no wonder no one cares what you think.

Yep, I do as it was CSA for the entirety of the time I used it.

He sounds like an arse .

Do kids of those ages really need to be looked after while you're away !

Maybe the 15 Yr old does but can he/she go to a relative .

I think I might have worked out the bus issue.

OP doesnt say if he contributes financially to the fees, but even if not I am guessing he is rather proud to tell people that "his" sons are at private school. So them slumming it on the bus with the proles does rather bugger up his "doing really rather well old chap" persona.

I know! What would we have done without him?!

OMG thank goodness a man has joined the thread, to impart his wisdom.

Call his bluff and ask him to take them or stay at yours if he's so concerned. They are his responsibility as much as yours. And how dare he imply parents who send their kids to school by bus should be reported to social services - it's crazy to think he did that! Bus is perfectly acceptable!!

As for this relationship between you and him - try to keep your cool about him around your kids. I come from a single parent family and was way less affected by things because my mother did not bad mouth my father or involve me in drama. If you guys can't get along (whether it's his fault or not), try to keep the kids out of it. Maybe you do this already. It sounds like a difficult situation but sounds like you are a great mum and well done for divorcing him if he wasn't making you happy. Best of luck with your holiday!

What for?

How did my totally jokey post get deleted by Mumsnet. Not really sure how it broke the guidelines. Maybe it was misinterpreted as serious.

Anyway op - enjoy your holiday. Your kids will be fine. Ignore your ex, such an absent Dad doesn't get to criticise your parenting.

OP, not unreasonably, thought that her time to do this was during 7 of the (not actually) 52 days a year that XH has their children.

As someone with children at a school that tacks a random extra week onto a half term, but is inconsistent about whether it is before or after the 'main' week, OP has all of my sympathy about making an assumption to book the holiday early, and then finding out the school had nobbed about with which week to have as the 2nd one off.

I don't know any separated parents who don't ever go on holiday while children are with the other parent, do you?

There was an error in the assumption about which week children would be out of school. OP has owned it 100%, made arrangements to feed all 3, keep them safe & ensure they attend school.

Definitely time for some grown up conversations with your nearly grown up children - just because their Dad isn't capable of being a functional, communicating adult, doesn't mean they have to follow suit!

Enjoy your holiday OP 😎

Miltiple posters are taking issue with you because a thread with 200/300+ posts on it requires you to read the OP's messages at a bare minimum.

If your phone cannot highlight them all at once then you can scroll through, as we used to do before that function was introduced.

A thrrad is an evolving conversation and it is rude to show up, read only the first post, and then offer your sugguestion.

How likely is it that after hundreds of replies nobody will have considered making the same suggestion?

Who wants to read through pages of the same answers to a post?

It's a message board, not quora, and you're missing out if you don't ever bother reading the threads here.

You have to be 18 to get married in England and Wales these days.

Are the kids going with you? 😉🤣🤣

Sorry, quoted wrong poster!

haahaha they are all teens Im sure they will be ok

Loads in the UK use CSA, as that was what it used to be called

Give over!

Send them to their dads for the week he’s got a car and he can take some annual leave problem solved xx

Nah.
I’d be first here to support a rant on sexism but I don’t think it’s relevant at all here, you are the main caregiver irrelevant of whether you have a minge or not
some of the posts calling you a bad parent are probs unnecessary
I do think your call for support that your ex is being an arse about this is probably misplaced, he sounds like a class A twat all in but that’s a separate issue.
youve mucked up, not with malice, but still, you’ve taken a pretty big risk booking that holiday in the first place with no guarantee of when the term dates were going to be and you’re kinda paying the price. It’s not the end of the world I guess that the kids stay with a nanny in principle but I doubt the whole thing is sitting very well with your kids that the holiday has become your priority over them
don’t know what the solution is, hope you can resolve it, maybe you have already if you can smooth things with the kids but while it’s easy to jump all over the ‘my ex is a c@nt’ line your kids I would say are VERY likely to have been feeling this anyhow so you need to validate their feelings

You've spotted the ages, right? Because your post reads as if you're talking about three very young children.
Unless it's satire, in which case apologies and well played.

We have a winner! 😂😂😂😂

I mean, you basically did. You are so lucky you were given them back at the end of the week.

😁😁

It’s like pulling teeth! 🙄😬😂

OP - I’m so sorry you are getting all sorts of mean messages because you have dared to go on holiday and arrange appropriate childcare.

For what it’s worth, my husband and I went on HONEYMOON for a WHOLE week and left our 16 year old and 9 year old with my in-laws. We’re terrible people. I should probably give the children up for adoption.