Is this an unreasonable request?

[Shabbatastic]

A young relative is terminally ill, and is close to the end. He is a young adult with an aggressive cancer, he only had the news that it had spread and cannot be treated a couple of weeks ago.
DS needs to see him, and this needs to happen before our relative worsens, or it will be too traumatic.
We tried to visit (4 hours away) on the weekend, but our relative had an awful time with pain relief issues.
We cannot visit next weekend as other family members are visiting and it would be too much.
AIBU to request time off this week? The problem is that I can't request a specific day as the situation is ever changing. It's so hard to gauge whether I'm making am awkward request or not because I'm stressed, exhausted and devastated all at once

YANBU. I think anyone with an ounce of compassion wouldn't hesitate to give you time if you explained the very, very sad circumstances.

What a horrible situation, I'm so sorry :(

I don't think you would be unreasonable to ask. It does depend on the nature of your job though, I suppose. When will you know which day it will be? And will other people be hugely inconvenienced by you taking a day off at short notice? I know if one of my colleagues were in this situation they would almost certainly be allowed the time off and we would all do everything we could to make it possible, taking over their workload etc. but it depends on your relationship with your manager and your team.

I hope that you are able to get the time off to see him.

YANBU.

And when I was working and we had a discretionary (paid/unpaid) element to compassionate leave, I'd put this in the "paid" category. I hope your workplace has policies which lets your manager do similar for you.

And I wish you well with the visit.

what a very sad time for you all, so sorry he, his parents and you all are going through this. Not sure if you're talking about taking time off work or taking DS out of school, either way you wouldn't be unreasonable to request time off. For work, some employers might give you compassionate leave, others might ask you to take holiday, but if it were my nephew, I'd go whatever.

Not unreasonable at all. Just say exactly what you have said here. It is one day but so important for you and your DS, anyone will understand. I can think of very few jobs where it would be impossible to accomodate.

I hope your relative gets good pain relief and comfort now.

Ah, Shabba, I'm sorry, that's awful .

No, YANBU, but stop stressing over it and just talk to your line manager. And if they say no, go anyway and deal with the fallout when you get back.

YANBU at all, and I'm so sorry your family are going through this.

Please be prepared for being knocked back though, DHs work have strict rules about only very close family members (siblings, parents and children) warrenting compassionate leave. On the other hand when my son died my brothers work paid for him to be flown off his boat and gave him paid leave to look after me.

Of course YANBU.

Are you talking about requesting a day off from your job or your child's school?

Not that it matters, neither are unreasonable.

Thank you so much for your replies, they are really helpful as it really is hard to know what to do.
I have asked for time off this week at late notice, but can't give an exact date
I'm also going to take DS out of school for a day, as he may never get to see our relative again