can any child psychologists help - re being apart from ds

[seekingsunshine]

I am on my own with ds, have been since he was born and I have very little day to day help. I have been offered the chance of a week away somewhere warm and relaxing but it's not suitable for ds.

I would love to go but don't want to leave ds for a week if it is going to be damaging for him, ie emotionally.

he will be about 3.2 when I go (if I go - I won't go if I have any doubts about his ability to cope).

he would be left with doting and active gps who have had him to stay before, but only for a weekend.

Please could anyone who is suitably knowledgeable about these things give me a steer one way or the other on this?

Many thanks.

When I was a child we had (younger) cousins to stay a lot at this age for a week. My parents have also done the same with my nieces and nephews (not with DD, but that's purely because of circumstances - I think she'd have a whale of a time if she stayed with them).

They have all been fine - I think the only things I'd say were that sometimes phone calls early on could be upsetting, and that nearly always when their parents returned, the children would initially want to stick with their aunt/grandmother for a while instead of rushing to parents, which was a bit upsetting for them (the parents). But that's totally normal - children seem to have a natural tendency to glom on to anyone who looks after them for a while - and it doesn't mean you're wrong to leave them or that they didn't have a good time.

Totally sympathise with you, though, and while I don't like it when people feel forced to go and "have a good time away from DC" purely out of societal expecations, I think that if you want to go (and it sounds great) you and DS will both be fine!

really useful views, thanks so much everyone!

feel much happier about the possibility of doing this. I am under lots of pressure from other people to, as vesela says go and have a good time away from DS, and as another poster discerned, am feeling very guilty and worried about whether it is the right thing to do, for both of us.