Mother leaving child on 24/25/26 to go to friends.

[Santas]

Hi,
i have changed my name because this is a very delicate thing but i would like to know your point of view.
A friend of mine (man) and his wife are getting separated. She is leaving him because...well, it started saying that he does not earn enough for the life style she would like to have (she is an accountant in the city but he is not - despite he has a decent job, he earns less than her). Now, she says that they are different. Anyway... She has managed to save money in the last months (my friend has been paying the mortgage and the bills, while she was apparently saving for a deposit to buy a bigger house together - they live in a small flat at the moment). In august she decided to leave him, took her savings and she has now bought a house where she will probably move in the next two months. He was distroyed, as he tried to make her happy. And overall because they have a 20 months old daughter and he will miss her.
Anyway, the mother has now decided to spend christmas day with friends (Her family leaves abroad so she does not have family in the UK apart from the husband's family.) As she does not drive, she will go on the 24th evening and come back on 26th when the tube will work again.the little girl and the father will go to his parents as every year to celebrate with the family. My friend is upset that his exwife prefer to go to the friends and leave the young girl behind for few nights.
I am shocked she is leaving the daughter in this way. AIBU?

I'm pretty convinced that this is a Reverse Unreasonable and the OP is the baby's mother.

I think she's struggling with people's reactions to hearing that she's leaving her child over Christmas (or maybe she's just been reading MN and thinking that it's not permissible to leave your child ever over Christmas, regardless of the circumstances) and wants some honest opinions of how things look to outsiders.

But it doesn't matter how things look to outsiders - they have no idea what's going on in this set of circumstances. The child is only 20 months old and won't have a clue what day of the week it is anyway, and she will be with her father and her GPs who love her.

I for one and glad that he hasn't lost the chance to be with his DD over Christmas on top of having his life and his marriage torn apart by a this woman.

And as for tricking him into paying all the household bills alone (on his lower salary) while she selfishly squirrels away her own money so that she can set up home without him, well doesn't she sound delightful?

She'e entitled to leave if she's not happy, but unless he was totally abusing her (and it doesn't sound very likely, does it?) what she has done with the money is very, very snide. If they had an agreement about finances then technically half those savings are his. But it was a daft agreement. They should have split the bills 50:50 and each saved what they could with what was left.

am glad, not and