Would you let your nearly 3-year-old go on a 2-week beach holiday with your parents? If you have just had a new baby....

[justaphase]

DS is 2.10, is used to travelling and loves spending time with his grandparents.

New baby is due in the first week of August. My parents have just offered to take DS on a 2-week holiday to Greece in the second half of August to make it easier for us to cope with the new arrival.

Our initial reaction was, NO WAY, we will miss him too much and will worry about him. However, I am now having second thoughts - am I being selfish here? He will probably have a great time.... why take this away from him? And it would certainly give me and the new baby some space and time to get used to each other.

The other thing that I really can not put my finger on is this: from his perspective, with a new arrival - does sending him on a holiday make him feel more special and grown up or would it seem to him that we don't want him with us any more now that we have a new one.

Help please, what would you do?

If they book to go away in the second half of August, it is possible that you won't have given birth by then, if you go overdue.

I wouldn't want my 3 yo in a different country when I was about to / had just given birth.

I wouldn't ask my parents to cancel their holiday either.

No way - too long to be that far away.

Agree with Brocolli - I have a 4 month old and 2 year old. We've been extremely lucky in that 2 year old DD loves her 4 month old DS and is very affectionate towards him. She is kissing him constantly and wonders where he is, even if down for a nap.

The timing is that your baby would be around for about 2 weeks before DS goes to Greece?

Think it would be better if you all have time to adjust....

I think it's too long

My DD is 2.10 and I'm not sure that she would understand what was going on at all. And I really wouldn't want her away from me for that long, and especially not if I had just had another baby.

I wouldn't want to be away from my 3 year old for 2 weeks. I don't think they'd come to any harm, I just wouldn't like it from a personal point of view. I'm not sure what my 3 year old would think of it - I think he would find it confusing and he'd miss his mummy.

I definitely would not do it if it was going to coincide with a new baby.

Just as you need time to get used to your new baby, so does your son.

It is an adjustment the whole family needs to make together imho. Two weeks away in those early weeks is a long time in a toddlers life.

Nice idea but not this time I think. Plan day trips with friends, dp, youself and importantly all four of you together. Show him that a new baby doesn't mean less time together as a family.

Mind you I wouldn't want my nearly four year old away from me for that long.

my grandparents took me to cornwall not a month after dsis was born, I was 3 (just) and I remember it with such affection. I also remember my mam telling me that my dad had looked for me in the garden when he had got in for work, which I thought was hilarious.

DS, then aged 3, went on holiday with the gps for about 2 weeks when dd was due but the distinction was they holidayed in the UK and bought him home the day after we got home from the hospital. I was sooo pleased to see him, and he us, although he'd had a fab time.

haven't read thread but reflex response to title is emphatically no. I'm a wimp, though, and don't do time away from ds well, whereas I know others think it's v important (they may well be right!) and really enjoy it.

ooh, yes to everlong's hormones - I'd want ds tucked up at home with me new baby and nowhere else (whether he liked it or not )