if i pull out of this training?

[VelvetSpoon]

Part of my job involves delivering training to other members of staff. As the company I work for has several offices, this means travelling for 3-4 hours each way, and an overnight stay if there is more than one day of training (or 2 days if the training is starting at 9am, as I'd need to go up the night before).

So, next month I've been asked to deliver 6 days of training, 3 sessions of 2 days a piece (and as all training is starting at 9am, I'd go up the night before. So 6 nights away).

Which isn't great, but it's doable. Or it would have been.

However, I've just received DSs mock exam timetable, and all his exams are during the period I'm meant to be away.

I feel I need to be here, to make sure he's up/ ready for school etc. The exam timetable is pretty busy over the days I'm meant to be away. I'm a lone parent; DS1 who's 18 will be here, but neither of them can 100% be relied upon to get up on time if I'm not around. I don't want DS to miss an exam, or be late, etc.

So AIBU to say I can't do the training? This will cause a big problem potentially as there's no one else who can easily deliver it, and the company is committed to completing all the training by a certain date...what to do?

The training has been rearranged, so there should not now be any issue thankfully. Am greatly relieved.

I appreciate the school wouldn't have any legitimate grounds to refer me, but the threat is there, and honestly the last thing I'd want is a SS referral. I'm not going to be away now - but if the situation happens again, I won't be telling the school. I really don't want to be sat there while they all pull concerned faces and make comments about children having parents at home.

It's not just this school, it was the same at DS1s school, and their primary - and I hear similar from friends with DC at other local schools. It just seems to be how it is round here, depressingly.