Saying Goodbye to Grandparents after a long visit

[united4ever]

Not sure if this is the correct subforum but anyway....my Parents in law have come to stay with us for the summer from abroad and everyone has had a great time. Trouble is they go back home in a couple of weeks and think this will be hard for my son who is 4 years old. They leave on a Friday morning so I think we will just take home to school as normal so he won't go to the airport to see them off which probably would have been upsetting anyway.

Therefore, when he comes home from school they will be gone and he won't see them until next summer. Any advice on how best to manage this. Was thinking about explaining it to him the night before and then a fairly low key hug and kiss with them before he goes to school. How does this sound? How would you go about explaining it....just keep it simple I guess - 'they live a long way away and have had a great time but need to go back home now which is very far away but they will think of you lots and will come to play again next summer' etc etc.

Any tips here....it's going to be a sad one I think....we have a 1 year old but she will be young enough not to understand it for now I think.

I might bring it up regularly over the remaining time they are here, get the idea in his head that they will be going soon so it won't be so much of a shock to him to have just one days notice iyswim.

not the same I know, but is Skype possible? Now that he knows them in person it will all make more sense to him.

then at least you can tell him that he can talk to them and see them over Skype. A 10 min chat every couple of weeks, with the 'grown up' side making some effort to have some 'show and tell' for the child, can be a load of fun on both sides.