Looking for some calm advice on this one please as it's touched a nerve for me.
Earlier this week my brother asked if his kids could come and sleep over tonight. This is a fairly common thing and we're always pleased to have them here. My 2 kids are similar ages to theirs (9 &6) and live seeing them.
My two have been looking forward to it all week and are counting down the hours today. An hour ago DB texts to say can it just be the youngest as he didn't know the other two were supposed to be elsewhere.
I've noticed for a little while that the older cousins are less interested in hanging out with my oldest - they are almost exclusively interested in gaming these days. We allow a decent amount of screen time, bit not the unlimited supply they get. Different strokes for different folks and all that. We usually relax our rules when they're here because they're clearly not keen on doing much else.
I've messaged back to say yes we'll still have the youngest, but also that DS9 is going to be gutted and what can I tell him about where they're going instead. He's not replied.
Having thought about it, I'm wondering whether I should have said yes to the little one. Obviously I can't force the older ones to come, but it's going to be so horrible for DS to deal with the fact that he's disappointed about them staying away and simultaneously having his nose rubbed in it by having one of them here.
I'm struggling to think rationally about it at the moment, I was the back up playmate for my cousins as a child - always dropped if a better offer came along. So gentle Mumsnet advice please - how do I deal with this? Do I suck it up, have the little one over and have a quiet word with DB tomorrow when he picks up? Or cancel completely?