She wants to take him somewhere that is a good 3 - 4 hour drive without dh or me. He is 5.
My concerns are mainly to do with her insomnia and its impact on her in the mornings. She uses wine/vodka to help her sleep (not ridiculous amounts- I've never seen her drunk) and struggles to get going in the mornings. When ds stayed overnight with her without us for the first time (he was 3), we arrived at 10am to find sil (disabled - has mobility scooter) about to take him for a ride on her scooter. When she saw us, relief flooded her face and she exclaimed, "there you are!". Sje went on to explain how he had been asking what he could do and been a handful. There was lots of sighing and, "Oh dears!" from her and mil as we got his coat on to take him out. Btw, mil had been pressuring us to have ds over-night since he was a couple of months old. He has not stayed at hers alone since, just for no reason really, but this incident has always stuck in my mind.
Sil will be going with them. As I said, she is disabled because of MS so will not be able to help out on a practical level, though she loves ds and he her and I know she will read and chat to him on demand!
It's just that ds is a handful - not physically - he does not run off or jump on stuff or anything like that but he just talks non-stop and asks a never-ending stream of questions. He will be excited and will be even more full-on than usual, I imagine. I just think mil and sil will find him a bit much and, as I have said, both are sightly impaired, though in different ways.
Another concern is about mil's driving. She had an accident a couple of years ago in which she drifted into another lane on the motorway, so I am concerned about her driving such a long way, especially on the way back when I am sure she will be exhausted after such 3 days with ds! They will be going in sil's car but my experience is that sil only drives when she absolutely has to so mil will do most of it I expect. Actually, this is my main concern and I think I'd be ok if they were going by train.
I will admit now that I find mil over-bearing and am often baffled by her need to do things with the dc alone. I also feel she favours ds1 over ds2 but, as ds2 is still young (2.10) I accept that this may change as he gets older. I certainly don't wish she was wanting to take the two of them as I'm sure she wouldn't cope with that. Anyway, yes she annoys me but I know she loves ds and he her and I know he'll love the holiday. Dh is all for it.
Just can't shake off my concerns. AIBU?