Holidays without little ones

[RogeyRog]

I need help and reassurance that I’m not a terrible mum. Feeling very emotional atm 😭 had my son on 30th October 2020. My husband and I have just booked our DREAM holiday- a 10 night all inclusive 5* holiday in Barbados for Nov 2023. We’ve booked for just us, and the plan is to leave our son with his grandparents (he has 3 sets of grandparents so we thought he could split his time amongst them not to overwhelm them!). He’ll be 3 years and one month old when we fly.

Am I a bad mum for wanting 10 nights away on my dream holiday? It’s all booked and now my mum has put a dampener on it by rolling her eyes and saying “well if you’re sure!”

Please someone make me feel better 😭

It’s a tricky one. I think it’s really one of those things where you have to suit yourself. No one can really say if it’s ok for you and your circumstances or not.

I guess the only thing I’d say is that it’s so far into the future, it’s impossible to say if your DC will be ok with that or not.

If it were mine, they’d be unlikely to be, but staying in one set of GP’s house for the duration would help a lot.

DH and I did this when DC1 was 4 and DC2 was 2. We’d not had a full night’s sleep for 4 years. It was amaaazing. DC were totally fine.

(It was only a week, but they’d probably have been fine for 10 days too).

Oh and our DC stayed in our house - grandparents took turns coming to stay with them. Better than going to GPs house I think.

@Rainallnight

It’s a tricky one. I think it’s really one of those things where you have to suit yourself. No one can really say if it’s ok for you and your circumstances or not.

I guess the only thing I’d say is that it’s so far into the future, it’s impossible to say if your DC will be ok with that or not.

If it were mine, they’d be unlikely to be, but staying in one set of GP’s house for the duration would help a lot.

I did think about him staying in our house and grandparents effectively moving in to look after him here, at least then he'd be around his own things. Thank you for your response x

@minipie

DH and I did this when DC1 was 4 and DC2 was 2. We’d not had a full night’s sleep for 4 years. It was amaaazing. DC were totally fine.

(It was only a week, but they’d probably have been fine for 10 days too).

Thank you, I think you're right and will suggest to my husband that LO stays in our house and grandparents stay here. I'm counting down the days to 10 nights sleep already 😂

Not the same thing but I had a month in my house at that age with alternate sets of GPs while my parents were in GOSH with my brother who was very ill at the time (he’s fine now).

I LOVED it. I still remember it fondly now, aged 40, being spoiled for a month. I obviously didn’t realise my DB was seriously ill but still. Your son will be fine. You’ll miss him more than he misses you, he will be busy having fun.

My DD is 3.5 years old and I’d be 100% fine leaving her at this age. She LOVES her grandparents & would thoroughly enjoy a ‘holiday’ to their house. I used to go away with work pre-pandemic & be away for 5 nights. DD was fine although towards the end of each trip she’d be a little upset & want me to come home.. but once I was home, she was a’ok!

I've done it before for 5 nights, I'm not sure I could for 10 nights but I'm sure DS will be fine