DS staying with grandparents for 5 days - advice please!

[Thesofaisnotatrampoline]

We are moving house next week and my DS who is 2.5 is staying with grandparents from Tuesday to Saturday while the packers and movers come and we get the basics set up at the other end (200 miles away)

He spends a day a week at their house and stays over once a month, plus he spent 3 days with them in August.

I'm feeling super hormonal and protective (24 weeks preggo with DS2) at the thought of leaving him, so wondered if anyone has any good tips for how to handle the week?

We will be staying too the first night but won't see him between weds and Saturday.

My gut feeling is it's better not to phone/FaceTime as I think it'll upset him. Anything else we can do to help him?

He is going through a clingy phase at the moment, and I'm sure he'll attach to my MIL very happily, but he's currently crying in his cot because I've said goodnight which is making me feel concerned about next week.

We've told him we have a lovely new house to explore and that he's having a very exciting holiday with grandparents next week, but I've tried not to bring it up too much as I want him to feel as settled as possible this weekend and have some good quality time with him before he goes.

Does he have a special toy/blanket that he can take with him?

Does he have to? It is quite a long time.

Don't want to put a spanner in the works but we did a similar thing with our 2.5 year old DC when we moved and with hind sight it was a mistake. They just didn't understand that the move was permanent, kept asking about the old house and were dreadfully unsettled for months afterwards. If we did it again I'd involve them in the packing, have then there to wave the removal van off and be at the new house to unpack. Is the any way your MIL could come to yours and look after your DS 'on site'?

My DS is 10 now but he used to get homesick when he went to his dad's for more than a couple of days. He's fine now, looks forward to it, but what's really helped him is being able to Skype me from his tablet whenever he wants to.
He was much older than your DS, about eight, when he started doing that, so it may be that he has just grown up a bit, but I'm saying it because it's not necessary a bad idea to be in regular contact.
Maybe try it once and see if it helps or makes things worse.

I think nutty has a better idea, actually.

Girlelephant - yes Teddy is going too :)

Cherrycrumble and nutty - at the time we planned it, it seemed like a good idea but I'm less sure now! My thinking was that it would upset him to see our stuff packed into boxes and taken away, but also he's an explorer/fiddler and would prob want to rifle through packed boxes.

This won't be our last move so maybe it's just going to be one where we learn how not to do it...

I'll try and talk about it more with him on Monday and Tuesday, maybe we can practise saying 'bye bye house' and 'hello new house!'

And maybe a quick FaceTime will help too - if we go for a morning slot he can be distracted by swimming or soft play if it's a disaster!

When my DGS was about 2.5years old and staying for a few days (as he often does, and has since he was a baby) I let him Skype his mother one day. He became quite upset when he saw her, and started to cry, whereas he had chatted happily to her on the phone every day until then. He was ok again after the call ended, but we never Skype again!