AIBU to be late on the first day at school?

[madmumdriver]

Basically, we are 1,500 miles away from home with our car, a 24hrs drive. DH and me are free until two days after school starts.
I'm of the opinion we should extend our stay, be one day late for school, and consequently see my relatives and attend a family event that we miss every year. DH is very strict with first day of school being super important, kids are Y2 and Y4. How important is that first day?

Children who are ill have no choice and seem to manage fine. I would miss the day.

But illness cannot be helped and the child is absent because they are too ill to attend. It is not an active choice to miss the day that many teachers on this thread have said is one of the most important.

I also do not have a problem with the odd day being missed for something important, but not the first day of the new school year.

I think it's quite arrogant. The teachers have prepared for the new academic year. The class are back bar those who are ill. Yet you appear to consider the term dates don't apply to your children. Imagine teaching a class where all the parents behaved like that. If you want to take your children out of school, barring an emergency, surely consult the teacher / head first.

I’m a stickler for school attendance and have never kept mine off, my eldest is now in high school but in your circs I would, it’s one day. I find it hard to believe that “class bonds” are going to be unbreachable after one day. 🙄 Especially as it’s not a new school, just more of the same as before the summer.

But please don't then complain because your child isn't "pencil monitor" which they wanted to be and has to be "ruler monitor" instead as they were missing when the jobs were given out!!

The OP posted on Wednesday and hasn't come back onto the thread. I wonder what she decided to do.

I wouldn't. DC won't miss much in the way of work but, as others have said, they will miss out on learning how the new class works. Better to hear this themselves, first hand, from the teacher.

Skip school. They won't remember in years to come but will have happy memories of the family event.

Kemer as I and others on this thread have said...yes we do rememeber!!

I think the first few days in a new class are SO important and would be gutted if my kids had to miss them. As other teachers have said, there are days that can be missed throughout the year, but these aren't them. My kids would also feel like they'd have missed out too.

If it was YR I was going to say don't skip but in that situation I would just miss the first day.

Wondering how OP did in the end.
We missed first week or so when we moved house a few years ago. New school, but kids were fine.

I can’t stand the current obsession with attendance especially when it ends up in fining parents who want to do a once
In a lifetime thing that happens to be in term and cannot be moved. But I think that choosing to miss day one is really bad for the child in many ways. I’d get back in time and ask whoever organises this event to bring it forward a bit in future.