Dad Discovers

“A dungeon horrible, on all sides round… No light; but rather darkness visible served only to discover sights of woe” 
- Description of Hell in ‘Paradise Lost’ by John Milton.
A Great Idea Soft play establishments were one of those things that I was vaguely aware of before having kids, without actually having any interest in. It’s a bit like the way that I’m aware of cricket, ITV Be and Luxembourg and have nothing against them but have no plans on giving them any of my attention.
Flash forward to the present and I’m sitting at home with a small energetic child, it’s raining outside and we desperately need to get him out of the house for a bit. Then we remember that there are mythical play lands specially designed for small children. They have a café too, so what’s not to like? We decide to give it a try. Remote for a Reason What sets the tone for these places very early on is their location. Something conveniently located in town? Nope. Something in a leafy suburb overlooking a park? …

Fickle Fan While watching the England v Colombia match the other day The Boy ran in and shouted: “Red team score a goal!” I was delighted by this until about 5 seconds later when he had a change of heart and declared “Yellow team score a goal!” and then annoyingly repeated that for the next few minutes before losing interest altogether and wandering off to play with some trains. At 2 years old it’s a stretch to get him interested in anything that’s not on CBeebies or Milkshake, but I realised that by the time the 2022 Qatar World Cup rolls around he’ll be six and will probably be a lot more interested in England’s success. Inheriting the Pain This got me thinking about supporting sports teams, the tribes we align ourselves with and how we often pass these allegiances onto our children. As an English kid with an English family, The Boy will have no choice but to support England. He’ll inherit the shared history of everything the English team has or hasn’t done over the years and that …