to not understand the parents jetting off on summer hols, but leaving their kids behind??

[ICoriander]

I just really, really don't get it.

Just seen on fb some friends doing the obligatory airport pic before jetting off abroad, whilst their 2 kids (around 8 and 11) are sent off to grandparents for the week. The kids usually spend their whole summer holidays with family so the couple can work, but they always take a week away themselves during that time. I could maybe understand it if they were doing a family holiday abroad, then one on their own, but the kids don't ever go.

Obviously none of my business, but it makes me irrationally angry, as it seems so selfish. I have dc of similar ages, and would never take the opportunity to go on holiday with dh without them; we'd be lost!

Is it just me??

I thought you were going to say the kids were grown up and the parents went off without them, but I see they are young.

Doesn't or didn't work for me I am afraid. I loved my family holidays. They are coming with us this year with girlfriend/boyfriend in tow, and I am just so happy. We have the same amount of fun as when they were small but now it really is a holiday! Everyman for himself. No packing for four, no cooking for four, no managing passports for four, no watching whilst on the plane and opening meal lids and mopping juice, no restrictions on where you can eat or drink.

Fabulous.

Now they are grown we do also have our own holidays and city breaks, as do they.

I guess a lot of it boils down to free income and available childcare.

We are thinking of doing this. It feels a bit mean, but dh and I can go abroad much more cheaply than 5 of us.

Can't believe I've been suckered into a troll thread! It's been entertaining though

Lucky

I know!

Apart from the bits where we all recounted our personal experiences in good faith.

Buyer beware, I 'spose

Oh I have enjoyed this one! Thank you OP even though not everything you wrote may actually be true.

Maybe we've made a rod, but I'm glad she knows she'll never be dumped off whilst I go gallivanting.

I dump my children to go gallivanting with my husband a few times a year. Sometimes I dump my husband and my children to go gallivanting without any of them. I am more than a wife and mother.

I'm smug because I actually have a family I like and want to spend holidays with? Okay, I'm fine with being smug.

I like my family and enjoy spending holidays with them. I also like going out and getting shitfaced on cocktails and then coming home and shagging loudly in the bath.

I dump my children to go gallivanting with my husband a few times a year. Sometimes I dump my husband and my children to go gallivanting without any of them. I am more than a wife and mother.

I dump my 5 children and 6 grandchildren to go to Disney Florida with my brother and sister in law every second year. I'd never dream of taking them with me. Children ruin Disney for adults.

We have 5 days away somewhere nice while dd (6) is with her grandparents.

Do I sniff jealousy?

I'm going on holiday without my son well technically I'm working in a hospital there but I'm also having 3 days holiday.

My son is allergic to all sun creams at the minute and I feel guilty not taking him but I would also have no one to look after him.

The OP turned into a magician once someone mentioned her children are in full boarding...

I don't feel like I need to go and flog myself now, I was starting to feel I must secretly hate my family and that I might need therapy as were having an entire child free week and I can't bloody wait!

Love them, but also really love my DP and a week being less sensible adults getting pissed on cocktails is going to do everyone in our household a world of good.

Maybe they do it over the holidays so that the grandparents dont have to do the school run and they have lovely days out instead. And the parents get a holiday too. Theres plenty of weeks in the summer holidays, so a week apart from the children doesnt matter that much.

Interesting topic!

Sounds great in theory. God, who wouldn't want a holiday away from their kids sometimes. I really get it.

Yet I remember being about 10 years old and my parents going away on holiday without me and being pretty upset about it (I didn't say anything at the time though).

Did you get over it popchart or are you still resentful to this very day?

Well sarcy Dinosaur, I was just trying to give a different spin on it. i.e. maybe from the child's point of view. But I guess you're one of those angry women who come on here for a bun fight. Get a life.

I'm smug because I actually have a family I like and want to spend holidays with? Okay, I'm fine with being smug

And again, the obvious thing to say here is that lots of people might well say to you 'I actually have a family I like and want to spend term times and week nights with and I wouldn't dream of sending them to live away from me in an institution for months on end, for several years of their childhood.'

Where parenting is concerned we all do what works for us and we all make choices that others might disapprove of, and usually no-one dies or gets emotionally scarred for life.

Although in this case I think children who are sent to boarding school probably have a slightly greater chance of being emotionally scarred for life by it than, for example, children who were occasionally sent to stay with their Gran for a week of the school holidays while their parents reconnected over a few cocktails in an adults only resort in St. Lucia.

My parents went to foreign every year without us. They were/are really good parents and although they made mistakes (who doesn't), their child free annual holiday wasn't one of them.

YABVU OP.

Goodness me popchart, what a raging temper you have. It was actually a genuine question but you flew right off the handle there didn't you. I'd see someone about your anger management issues. It can't help you in real life.

It's not something we'd do, plenty of time for holidays as a couple when the children have left home.

I can't imagine telling them we are going away but they are not important enough to come.

I'd just ignore Popchart.

Silly billy that she or he is.

What's wrong with this? My parents used to holiday without us regularly and we would go to our grandparents. When they split they continued to holiday without us with their new partners whilst we were with the other parent. I can honestly say I never minded, I didn't want to go to the places they went to anyway! (Mostly European cities or walking holidays in the lakes).
Don't see the problem with girly holidays minus kids either - if kids are left with dad they can have some one on one time.

Honestly, why so much judging. If a girly holiday or week abroad with a partner is what u need to feel refreshed and happy then you should have it (provided the children are with people who love them and you can afford it!) Happy parents are more likely to have happy children.

Lol, you have issues dear don't you. i would have apologised to you for the way that I unintentionally came across to you, clearly words on the page don't always translate well, but you're so rude and aggressive that I find I'm not sorry at all.