is this, because my world seems a little skewed?

[ireallydontknow]

i have booked a holiday and asked dh's brother & sil (live in a different country a long way away) if they wanted to come back in feb. having had no response i assumed they weren't coming. this holiday is somewhere in europe so it's a flight and a hire car scenario.

the holiday is now in 2 weeks. dh has informed me that his brother want to send just their kids along, 10 & 13 yo. the 13yo has sn. i don't know the children very well. i've probably met them about 4 or 5 times.

dh's mum will be there so i'm sure she will help. we will have to meet them at the airport, a couple of hours drive away from where we're staying. i have 2 kids, 1 & 3 yo.

i'm feeling rather put out. is this something people do? send their kids on hols without them?

I hope this doesn't sound unkind, but actually I think your dh might be the elephant in the room.

Did dbinlaw really say 'no, we're not coming, but with 2 weeks to go my wife and I have decided that you should take our teenagers, one of whom has sn, and not only that but you should pay for their expenses (which will be considerable) and also contribute to their flights?'

Or did DH offer and is now being disingenuous? Am a bit shocked that he was proposing to make you the excuse not to have the kids.

How did MIL take it?

mil has just come back from a week away. turns out she spoke to her ds (my bil) before she went and he sounded her out on the idea!

she thinks it's too dangerous for the kids to come because of swine flu, and that they should come at christmas instead. i suspect she's on the same page i am.

anyway, bil is looking into flights to see what they'll cost.

meanwhile sil is now thinking she and her dh will come, but still not sure yet.

onebatmother, unfortunately bil looks upon the world as resources to plunder and is thinking of sending his kids to us for a few months . god knows when this is going to happen but i still haven't been consulted. i'd have a few words to say on the subject.

no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no

please say no or it's going to annoy the bugger out of me

no, no, so many things wrong with this

what about your time with your own children

put your own children first and say no

your children need you to be there to play board games and give them all the special attention you can when not bound by school run, meal cooking, cleaning, everything, and this is outrageous

I'm going to shout

PUT YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN FIRST AND SAY NO

god say NO

they are taking the piss

oh the injustice that you should be made to feel guilty about this and be seen as the spoiler

give me their phone number I want to call them and say ARE YOU INSANE

You are not responsible for those children!

It´s parents and children or nothing.

Your MIL doesn´t want it, so that´s it.

Why would they be sending their children to you for months?

Don´t they go to school?
Wouldn´t the parents miss them?

Surely that´s an absolute no?

I would say NO you are not going to babysit them for 2 weeks, I WOULD NOT BE HAPPY ABOUT IT IF IT WERE ME

i haven't actually been asked even though i've organised the whole holiday!! i think dh will have to say no although i'm pretty annoyed they didn't talk to me. seems they've talked to the entire family except me.

i think the kids will end up staying with mil who gets tired very easily so i suspect the few months will in reality be a few weeks. i will certainly fight my corner to not have them stay with us for too long...

i could never let my kids go away for that long, at that age, without me. what about school indeed? the whole way of thinking is just totally foreign to me.