Would it be wrong to travel without the children after passport mistake?

[Halohalolumpia]

Alright, so we’ve made a silly mistake and found out our eldest’s passport is expired, and we fly tomorrow. We didn’t get travel insurance so that’s a couple of grand down the drain. The two options are to leave the kids ( 2 years 9 and 5 years 8 months) with my parents whom they stay with every week anyway. Or we just all don’t go. It’s such a waste and I am torn. My hubs is ok going on our own but I feel sooooo guilty! The kids were so looking forward to it. Has anyone been in this situation and is it bad parenting going on our own :/ We’ve been away on our own before for a wedding for a couple of days but not 6 days. thanks xx

Yeah, I wouldn't go without them, that's really harsh.

You are being unreasonable- you and DH messed up not checking the passports, and 2 excited kids have to stay at home while you holiday. Thats really not okay.

Yup, this happened to me. We were supposed to have a grandparent coming with us too. We have three dc. In the end we left the two eldest with thee grandparent who was supposed to come and went with the youngest.
It was horrible, and we felt guilty, but the two we left behind had the time of their life with their grandparent.
I think we were the ones that didn't have as grand a time as we were missing them!
We had to go as it was a family wedding!

My 9 year old would never forget this!

Why do you need to inform your travel insurance company of the planned trip (assuming you have an annual policy from what you said).

As an aside, why are people not checking passport expiry dates?

yup x

I have a heart condition, so I always make them aware of planned and booked trips incase my health changes and I need to cancel/reschedule etc. xx

Please get travel insurance!

Honestly! I am obviously not that organised. For the first five years, we just didn't have to think about it, and then it suddenly dawned on me one week before. We couldn't get a passport appointment at the right time. But big lesson learned.
I wouldn't go if it was just a jaunt, but yes, we totally deserve that

Not until you go to check in

You can't go without the kids. That's appalling parenting,

It's entirely your responsibility to make sure the kids had valid passports for the holiday and you didn't. Saying, 'Oh well, never mind we'll just go without you and you can go to Granny.' is utterly unbelievable.

Yes, they will be disappointed that you've fucked up the holiday for everyone. No, it won't make it better if you get to swan off without them. I can't actually believe anyone is genuinely considering this as an option.

Honestly! I am obviously not that organised. For the first five years, we just didn't have to think about it, and then it suddenly dawned on me one week before. We couldn't get a passport appointment at the right time. But big lesson learned.
I wouldn't go if it was just a jaunt, but yes, we totally deserve that

I read it and 5yrs 8months and 2yrs 9 months...
I might be wrong, but mostly people would list eldest to youngest or youngest to eldest.

Well aren’t you daft as a brush! In a nice way. Not checking the passports and no travel,insurance. You are a slip down some steps away from a DM go fund me page.

Nor is it expecting/assuming grandparents are happy with the situation either. OP is obviously only interested in herself.

I imagine the OP is too busy making arrangements to return to her thread.

I’d suggest asking the airline/tour operator if you could move the family holiday to summer holidays, October half term or May half term next year. May be too late now, but still worth a try. Even if you don’t lose all the money, it’ll be something.

I wouldn’t want to go on a family holiday without my kids when they were young. Holidays were to spend precious time with the kids, not have a holiday for ourselves.

And as PPs have already said, never travel without insurance. Not necessarily for theft (I never have anything worth stealing and there’s always an excess). But for medical costs, having to stay with a family member for months in ICU, flying someone home on a medical flight or (heaven forbid) repatriating a body.

Accidents can and do happen. So do unforeseen medical emergencies. For the sake of less than £50, it avoids you having to sell your home to pay to remain abroad to care for a very sick loved one and/or to fly them home on a special medical flight.

If you’re organised enough to book a holiday, you should surely be organised enough to ensure your passports are valid!

It’s part and parcel of leaving the country, not an optional extra.
Claiming to be disorganised is genuinely mystifying.

It would be a major dick move to go away without them when it was your mistake. Your 5yo is so excited for this holiday and you would leave them behind?! Awful!

We are going on holiday in the summer and I have been obsessively checking all the passports since booking to make sure one hasn’t gone magically out of date. I know that’s ridiculous. In your shoes, I would be paying whatever fees to move the holiday so we could all go.

So how did that happen?...all passport holders details have to be entered for flights when booking...

I would do exactly this. I absolutely could not enjoy myself through guilt leaving the children behind but even worse leaving one for them behind. They would be devastated.

Tells you all you need to know about your DH, I think. I can’t believe you’d even consider it. Awful, really awful.

Can people not read?

YOU CANNOT GET AN EMERGENCY PASSPORT FOR A CHILD.

https://www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently

(The exception is just that - exceptional circumstances, not family holiday.)

But it takes five days and they are only going for six days.