flowmom | need to commit to myself

[Freckle6]

I saw you ask for H4L's input earlier and decided to stick my nose in too.

I don't know whether you should or shouldn't ask, but IMO, if you do ask him I would reword what you wrote. It sounds *very* formal and businesslike. And I would ditch the part about not wanting to be away from the kids for that long. He will interpret that in every possible wrong way--you don't trust him, you're controlling him, etc.

Is the location a place you could use as an excuse for asking him to come along with the kids (instead of it being because you'd miss them)? Like it's somewhere they've never been before and this city has the largest bounce house ever and you know they'd absolutely love that?

If you can figure out another angle like that, I'd ask casually and keep it light. Say you know this is a weird request and awkward, but that you'd love to go to this for the work opportunity and you know the kids would love to spend time in XXX and do XXX too so you were wondering if he would think about coming along/meeting you guys there to be with the kids when you're at work stuff. You can throw in the stuff about separate rooms (say, "Don't worry. We'd do separate rooms and all that.").