I recently received an invitation to the overseas wedding of a close family member.
The couple does not live overseas, nor do they have any connection with the country in which they are marrying. The invitation came with a note of recommendations for very expensive accommodation, and another note which explained that children are not welcome.
In order for us to go we would not only need to shell out a lot of money which we simply don’t have, but we would also need to either leave our children in Australia with a babysitter, or leave them in a hotel room with a complete stranger in a foreign country. Neither we, nor our children are comfortable with either of those options. We toyed with the idea of just me going and my husband staying home with the kids; however I’d be gone for at least three days. This would mean my husband would need to take three days of annual leave in order to care for the children, or work from home which wouldn’t be fair on either his employer or the kids, as neither would be getting enough of his attention.
