My hubby and I are going to Ottawa for 10 days in November and leaving our two boys aged 9 and 5 at home - week days with friends and weekends with my parents. I am having sleepless nights about leaving them. Has anyone else done this??? Please tell me I am doing the right thing???

I am off to Nova Scotia on Thursday for a week. I'm not taking my boys ages 12 and 6 because it is term time. I don't have a choice of dates as I have to take my nursing exam on 10th.

Even though my OH will be at home with them I am still up-tight about it. I have never not seen them for a week before. I know they will be OK, and I will get more done without the kids "in tow". But it doesn't make it any easier to leave them.

What you are doing must be harder as you are both going, but you will pack so much more in on your own, and it is preparation for your new life. There are bound to be a few sacrifices along the way.

Your children will be fine, so will mine. We both know that deep down, or else we would never have considered going.

They will be spoiled by everyone when we are away and will have loads of fun. I have told my children's teachers so they will probably get "concessions" at school (and I am sure that they will play that one to its fullest advantage).

We will be the ones worrying about them....not the other way around.

Go an make the most of your time there. Get things set up to make the move easier, and try to make a little time to enjoy yourselves too.

And remember....they are only at the other end of the phone.

Good luck

You're doing the right thing!!

Wish we had thought of that one, well actually we did then we decided to take them, but only because we had not had a family holiday this year, and we have managed to combine our visit with half term. Even with this they are still going to miss seven days of school, which is not ideal. Oh and I decided that we wanted them to have a look at Canada so that we know they are cool with the idea of relocating.

We have relatives out there who will let us get about and look at the things we need to see childfree....

As had already been said, you are only a phone call away, they will be fine, you will acheive far more without them, and you can have some bonding time with hubby.

Enjoy the break
Charlie

We left our daughter behind when we did all of our scouting trips (4 of them up to 2 weeks each). She was 3 at the time and we felt it would be far to difficult for her to keep up with everything we had to do.

She stayed with friends and hardly noticed we were gone.

It'll be fine - honest !! As others have said, this is actually a good idea in that you and hubby will achieve so much more. And if you are jet-lagged and knackered, just go with the flow - enjoy it and you won't have to worry about little people.

Ten days will fly by for them - I'm guessing at least five of those days are at school, in which case things will be pretty normal for them.

Just think, whenever anyone goes on holiday - and you are staying at home - don't you think their holiday always flies by, and you can't quite believe two weeks has passed already, when they get home? It'll be the similar for them. They might be anxious initially about a 'whole ten days' but they'll be spoiled and entertained and it will actually pass pretty quickly.

Enjoy yourselves, get out for a few 'romantic dinners for two', get stuck in and research all the things you need to look at.
Believe me - when we came out, it would have been such a novelty not to have to detour to playgrounds and swimming pools each day - and it would have been fantastic to sample a restaurant that did not sell chicken dippers and chips !

It's an important thing you are considering doing. Make the most of it. Good luck to all

It's never as bad as you think it will be.

Up until recently I had never left my girls (4 and 2) with anyone other than grandparents - for a couple of nights at the most and then very infrequently. Then life went a bit topsy turvy and I ended being separated for 10 days from them. It was hard, I did miss them but it wasn't anyway near as bad as I guessed it would be.

If you're going to busy then that'll help. You'll probably find that it will be the last few days that you are more than ready to be with them again.

Good luck, and enjoy the 'me' time

Oh, and good luck DestinationNS for the CRNE

Thanks.... I'll need it