Leaving a child at the airport

[Longboardpedro]

I have 3 kids with my wife. She is from Germany but we live in the UK. She had tickets to head back to see family for new years.

Unfortunately my eldest daughter only had 2 months left on her passport so when they reached the final gate for departure, my eldest was turned away from flying.

I had to collect her and bring her home whilst my wife carried on with her trip to germany with the 2 other kids. My eldest was heartbroken.

I was shocked, as this is something I could never do. We either all go or no one goes is how I approach things but keen to get some feedback from other parents on their opinions if that was OK?

Looks like they didn't have Germans passports.

I agree with you OP to leave a child behind is cruel, and the child will remember, the mother was taking the children with her, she should have checked the passports.

Moving forward can you now sort her passport and arrange a separate trip for her to go with mum to see her German family in the New Year so its a special one to one time for her?

Until last June it was hard for German citizens to hold dual passports. The law changed in June 2024

They would be able to avoid all the problems if children would have German passports. Then it is only matter that it's valid on a day of travelling.

They should originally applied and declare children as Germans. That's what I did for my child. Although he got UK citizenship automatically, I first declared him as my country national as he is entitled to that.

Very surprised at the number of people who think it would be OK to leave one child from the family at the departure gate, at the moment of boarding, waiting for her dad to collect her. At 9 years old!

It's not like it was planned, she literally thought she was going to be flying with the family and then her mum abandoned her at the gate. It's totally different to a situation where a child is planned to travel as an unaccompanied minor, or it was planned that she would stay at home with dad. I cannot imagine the hurt and upset she would have felt - not just disappointment at missing the trip.

If this was an adult couple, and the bloke fucked off onto the plane leaving his wife behind because she got turned away at the gate I can't believe anyone would think that was fine. Even with enough maturity to comprehend the situation, most adults would still feel very left out, even if their sensible head thought it was right not to waste his ticket. A child wouldn't have that perspective though, she would just be thinking 'when the chips are down, mum will put herself first and leave me". Poor kid.

Yes dad could have checked the passports but wouldn't the person booking and travelling normally do that? My husband doesn't check my passport for me if I'm travelling without him.

I would not have gone without the 9 year old.

Too young to not find this incredibly upsetting and confusing.

@Mayana1 but it was a woman who left her child so that's OK. Of course the OP is wrong, he's a man!

I am amazed by the responses you've been given here. I wonder if you'd said your DD is only 9 earlier, the responses would have been different. My eldest DD is 9 and there is no way I would leave her at the airport and go on without her. At 9 children do start to act more grown up, but are actually still really young. Your poor daughter is likely tremendously hurt that her own Mum would just leave her that way. This is likely to stay with your DD for the rest of her life and she is likely to never truly forgive your wife for it.

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Excuse me, what are you saying? I am totally on his side, I would never leave my child and don't understand how his wife did that. So I am team husband. You quoted the wrong person.

I was being sarcastic. I agree with what you said......