Tips for leaving kids with grandparents

[okinawama]

My DH and I are going away together for 3 nights 4 days. I have two boys ( 23months and 4years old) who we will me leaving with my mom. My mom flew here to my home a week before I leave, and will be staying at my house while I'm away, so most things will be completely "normal" for my kids. However, this is by far the longest I've ever left my kids and I'm unsure on what I need to do to make this time as easy as possible on my kids and my mom. I trust my mom completely and while my kids don't live near her, we skype almost daily and they are very comfortable around here (even more so now that she's been here for a week).

So, any BTDT advice. What legal forms did you leave? did you do any daily gifts for the days you were gone? How frequently did you call? Any tips or advice are greatly appreciated!!

[lalasmama]

"I (Parent's Full Name) give permission to (Mother's Full Name) to seek any necessary medical care for (Children's Full Names and birthdays) for the dates of (vacation dates)." Sign, date, put a contact phone number, and that should be good. We've never had a problem with a note like this--and we do NOT spend the time to get it notarized. I leave a list of DD's allergies and medications (because she has FA), doctor's and dentist's contact information.

If I'm gone just overnight, I don't call, but I'll send a text to check in. If it's 2-3 nights, then I will call each evening before bedtime.

We don't leave daily presents, but I do bring home something from the trip for DD--last time I left her overnight was for a mommy weekend to Disneyland (yeah, yeah, I know, I go to a place filled with kids while trying to escape my own child, it makes no sense!), so I brought her back a little necklace and earring set. Other times, it's been a new magnet (she loves travel magnets) or some other "trinket".

I've never left DD with a "non-parent" before. I figure they are raising happy, healthy kids, I trust them or I wouldn't be leaving DD there, so I need to let them have their space to take care of her as they see fit, so I don't call a million times or leave a long list of do/don'ts. And DD does much better if I don't act all anxious about it ;)

[twowhat?]

I created a whole packet of information and sent it to them as a pdf, as well as kept a printout in an easily accessible place. In it I included:

address, phone numbers, and map of: doctor, dentist, specialist, nearby urgent care centers, preferred emergency rooms, daycare/school. I included their hours.

I also added a map to the local parks/playgrounds, and a map to a couple of favorite places to eat, and maps to grocery/drugstores. In every map I made sure to highlight the route (in google maps).

I left health and dental insurance info for the kids

I had a sheet with just the general schedule (wake up time, meal times, nap times, bedtime)

I included medications and amounts (for example: Zyrtec 1/2 tsp once a day for sneezing/runny nose/itching or hives). I included the amounts for fever meds. I also taped a piece of paper around the medicine bottles with the same info (grandmas have trouble reading that tiny print).

I left a map, phone numbers, hours for the emergency animal clinic (for our dogs) as well as amounts of how much they eat and how often.

I left names and phone numbers of a couple of sets of friends who would be able to help or offer advice in case they couldn't reach us.

A lot of this was overkill since our grandparents are very familiar with the girls' routine but I figured that this info would also come in handy in an emergency or if I had to get someone who was not so familiar to watch the kids/dogs.

I am sure there are some legal forms we should've left but I forgot about them...

As for when you're gone...our grandparents were great about emailing us regularly to let us know what was going on. They'd send an email with a pic of the girls enjoying lunch and it would say "they are being so good! Having seconds now!" and little stuff like that. They did it often enough that I didn't feel that I had to call or email to ask. I was also able to video chat with the girls once or twice (YMMV on this - our girls are old enough and used to us leaving enough that they are happy to see and talk to us on video. But I can definitely see some kids getting upset over it or being too young to understand. One time I caught DD2 at a bad time (she just woke from a nap) so she was on the verge of tears while I talked to her, but she got over it.

Oh, and I also included our wireless name/password in case they needed to reset it on their devices.


Sounds like your mom would do a lot of the same things (email/text to let you know how things are going, etc).
Enjoy!!

[belovedgandp]

My pediatricians office had a permission to treat form on their website. I complete it every year and include my parents on it. I stole most of the wording and left it as a general letter for Mom to take with her to the ER if absolutely necessary along with the insurance cards.

With kids that age, I called or e-mailed to check in, but only with Mom. The kids don't have a great concept of time and I never talked to them. It killed me, but they were better for it. Same goes for no gifts while we were gone. As much routine as possible just Grandma there instead of us.

Since she's not used to having full time young kids all the time if you could arrange one break that is nice. We left just one 2 YO with Grandma for 9 days. I'm a SAHM and he didn't have school and didn't really nap to give her any downtime. I had two different friends offer playdates at their house. He was 100% comfortable there. Mom dropped him off and picked him up a couple hours later. A nice break for her.

I did a general outline of our routine with some optional activities. But nothing concrete. I let her follow the kids' lead and what she wanted to do too.

I did stock the fridge with healthy items that I knew the kids would eat so she had to do minimal cooking while there.

[jam224]

We just did this last month with DD (22 months old). We didn't leave any legal forms with the grandparents, although it's not a bad idea to leave something informal granting medical permission as a PP suggested. DH is a surgery resident and he said they can get parental permission over the phone, so we didn't worry about having anything in writing.

We didn't do daily gifts, but we did bring back a souvenir for DD. We tried to call every night, but a couple of nights we didn't call early enough to talk to DD anyway (the 3-hour time difference made it difficult).

My MIL specifically requested an outline of our routine, so I printed out a sample schedule for her. It went:
-- Wakeup routine
-- Breakfast routine
-- Afternoon routine
-- Naptime routine
-- Dinner routine
-- Bedtime routine
-- A little info about how PTing is going

I also included a short 1-page notes section on DD; her favorite songs to sing, her favorite characters, meal ideas, fast food ideas, snack ideas, drink ideas, and TV/movie ideas. That way, it gave my MIL freedom to make her own decisions, but if she needed suggestions, she could use my notes as a reference.

DD had a *wonderful* time with the grandparents and was such a good girl for them, I'm really impressed with how smoothly things went. I hope all goes well for you too!

[karstmama]

I include a sheet of how to work the tv/DVD players. Mama is *not* the tech guru & asked for that. I call every night just before bedtime, but they do their thing beautifully.