Does a new baby arriving warrant a day off school?

[mummytippy]

My ex and his GF are expecting a baby. The due date is the 15th Feb.
Our ds should have had contact with his dad this weekend but did not at the request of my ex after he contacted my ds on Thurs eve to say they thought the baby was on its way.

Our ds had a day trip on Sat which I took him to on behalf of my ex... and up to midday Sat I was on 'standby' as to whether I was to take my ds to his dad or not after he returned from the trip. In the end my ex contacted me and requested I keep our ds with me.

My ds rang his dad tonight and no sign of baby? No labour... Nothing?
In fact his GF was running a bath for her ds so not sure what Thursday was about apart from an excuse to get me to dash about getting my ds to his trip and back on my ex's behalf

Contact takes place EOW for my ds and his dad and the fast approaching upcoming HT our ds is scheduled to be with me. It is on a Court order. This was at my ex's request at the final hearing with my ex opting to have the Oct HT which he had in its entirity last year. At this point he also knew his new baby would be due on or around Feb HT.

I can see their happy event is going to happen at somepoint this week and I don't want to be caught out by having to particularily sacrifice any of my holiday time with my ds for him to go off to his dad. I have plans and bookings on certain days. In view of this, I was wondering if the birth is in the next few days whether a day off school would be appropriate?
Eg, My ex collect our ds from school and bring him back the next evening...
Or my ds wait until the weekend and go next weekend (Fri eve - Sun eve) but insist I get the first weekend of the Oct HT in return?

I am reasonable and am thinking of my ds's best interests in being able to bond with the new baby but at the same time it was my ex who took me to Court 2 years ago and he was a complete &%@{ when it came to extra contact last year... even our ds's birthday... he allowed me 2 hours after school because they were having a ''family party''. I don't want to seem bitter but some things are hard to forget. I'm still strying to make up for lost time with my ds.

[Viviennemary]

Under the circumstances I'd say it's probably not justified for your DS to have a day of school. Espeically as half term is soon - next week for a lot of schools. Why would he even need a day off. It's not even certain what day he'll be going. Don't be led a dance. If he requests your DS to go on a day that isn't too inconvenient for you then it's probably better to just agree. Until you know the day he's to visit you can't really make the decision.