Ask a silly question...

The children went home after a fab three-day weekend. I won’t lie, if you’ve had a tough weekend with them, sometimes you’re glad to see them go and have some downtime. Today though, I was really sad to have to give them back. 

To alleviate this, I immediately went out on a run and pushed myself to my own personal limits and returned back to my home, panting heavily as the sweat poured from every pore. My neighbour was cleaning out his van when I returned. Looking me up and down as I removed my AirPods and checked Strava, his face deadpan as he asked: “been for a run, have you?”

I’m quite a polite chap with people I don’t know that well, but I couldn’t help myself at this question and looking myself up and down and wiping the sweat now stinging my eyes, I grinned and gently punched him on the arm as I ventured that I hadn’t exactly just popped round the corner for a paper and wasn’t quite that unfit.

With regards to the wee ones, the parental learning is a perpetual ball of motion. Sometimes you’ll learn something crucial, but because you’re so busy learning other stuff and trying to keep up with your erstwhile tutors/guinea pigs (children) you can be guilty of forgetting some basics.

I was reminded of this today, when we had a lovely morning at the Flower Bowl down at Barton Grange (if you’ve not been before and you’re up this way, I recommend taking a look) and playing some crazy golf on their brilliant indoor 18-hole course. We had a great time, but I felt that it was a little expensive for the time it took us to get round (just over half an hour).

Compare this with the afternoon where for the cost of parking, a picnic and three ice creams, we had two and a half hours on the beach at Heysham, playing cricket and frisbee, building a volcano on the sand, running through water jets on the prom and having a go on the playground. All outdoors and all under the great British sunshine. The children were happy and screaming with laughter as the jets of water shot into the air at random times.

How easy to forget that most fundamental of lessons, that it’s not about the presents and lashing out on expensive activities, it’s about the quality of time you spend with them that truly counts.

Of course, it really does help if the sun is shining and ice cream is within easy distance!