So, my son is 8 in January. Every single Christmas season since he was just under 1 year old we have visited Santa's Grotto at Harrods. We always go with a friend of mine from University and her son who is a couple of years older than my boy. The event is incredibly popular and has to be booked from August. Any later and there are simply no slots available.
This year, 10 days ago, my grandmother died. Her funeral will be in Wales and is on same day as Santa visit. We cannot, of course, make the visit on that day. My friend has gone to some effort contacting Harrods and trying to persuad them to change visit date. At first they were somewhat immovable but via Twitter there has been some positive indications that they may change the date for us.
Here begins my problem, a little under two weeks ago my son's school 'instructed' us that children are expected to attend and participate in an evening rendition of their Christmas show. I chatted with a school Mum today and indicated that in the above circumstances, if the Grotto are able to give us a slot on the evening of the performance I would take my son and he would have to miss the evening show. (He's in the singing group, no individual part). She was clearly horrified that I would be prepared to do this and that I should, 'think of the parents who deserve to see the show, some parents can only go in the evening' etc. (I have my own business, so while I work a 60 hour week it can be a bit flexible).
AIBU? It's really playing on my mind as she obviously felt very strongly about it. If the situation was reversed I would never expect another 7/8 year old to miss out on an event that had been planned for so long. There has never been an obligatory evening performance before, I had no idea and tbh, at this time of year two weeks notice is really very short. So, AIBU to take him out of the evening performance if the Grotto can fit us in that night?
Thanks for reading so far.....