Wednesday 13 August 2008

How long are the summer holidays?/I wish I was a mother

I'm sure I'm not alone in remembering the long hot school holidays of our youth. Days of eternal sunshine matched with endless forays into distant countryside on cycles and interspersed with dips in ponds until chased away by irate farmers. So how come The Boy's summer holiday is going on for an eternity of rain, wind and a wintry chill. Rather than meet up with friends, he'd rather spend his days on MSN...or sometimes more productively learning the next Stereophonics song to play on his guitar. Vague thoughts of coming into town with me to go to the climbing centre are long gone.

It does appear though that some of the mothers at the school are better at putting their kids together, and I hear the odd tale of children going on holidays with other families. So it seems that my joint role as mother and father is not quite as successful as it should be. From my lop-sided viewpoint I think that women are much better at building networks for both themselves and their offspring. Last year it all seemed to work better with holidays with two grandmothers and friends leaving just a week or so of down time...this year an unrelenting disaster. :-(

3 comments:

  1. Speaking as the only man at the 'mother and baby' group, I think you're right - but mum's not only have the opportunity, they have the strength in numbers thing as well. Still, there are some compensations being the only bloke!

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  2. I agree with that too. Much harder for those with dangly bits. But I have been making greater progress in that area. Have arranged days out with mothers and their kids from the Nursery, my boy has been out on trips with them and their kids on his own, their kids have been round here and vica-versa. It hasn't been effortless, and I think that facet is easier for moms.

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