Rent-a-kid

This weekend we had friends staying with us from the far off Southern lands of London town. Friends consisted of mummy and little dot, age 3. Arrival time: Saturday morning, departure time: Sunday evening. We hadn't really made any firm plans as were waiting to see what the weather was going to be like (that would be utter miserable cold and cloudy rubbish). Saturday was fine as first of all calming down had to happen,"I want to go hoooooome" is not how our guests usually greet us as they walk through the door. Luckily there was a magic fairy house in the room they were staying in that soon distracted from thoughts of wanting to depart our lovely abode so suddenly after arrival. A brisk walk up to the chilly duck pond armed with bread to feed the fattest ducks in the world (fact - they eat literally half of our village's consumption of bread), a quick fall in the duck pond (HA!) that thankfully was greeted with big pride rather than big tears, and a slightly muddier brisk walk back to the warm house before tea, bath and bed.

And so to Sunday. Despite the fact that we started the day at 7.40 in the AM - say what?! for the first time in our lives Wavey and I suggested a kid friendly location. Namely a local park that happens to house lots of fun stuff like little trains for little people, and entertainment (more of that later), and Butterfly World! Oh my word so cool! Well actually not cool at all, more like a tropical paradise where the most amazing butterflies just fly around and flutter past you and dance around your feet, and the most beautiful hothouse flowers, and ponds with giant fish and waterfalls...oh my oh my, it was so exciting for me, imagine how much little dot loved it! At one point I was carrying her round through the reptile house and there was a red snake and she was so excited that she was all like tensed up and about ready to pop - so sweet. Couple of photos for you to enjoy now:





From there we played on the swings and on the slides before someone told us about the Punch and Judy show that was about to take place. Off we duly trotted to enjoy some (extremely non-PC) entertainment. Cue lots of shouting from hyperactive kids, a very violent Punch knocking Judy to the ground, the LOUDEST snapping crocodile I have ever seen (a little boy next to me was literally terrified, he jumped back into his mummy's arms and his eyes were huge, I predict nightmares for weeks to come), the policeman who beat Punch with a frying pan...it was, I have to say, pretty scary. And I'm big. Imagine how scary it was to the little people!

All in all a fun day out was had by all. And so it got me to thinking. I reckon if you don't have any little dots yourself you should be able to borrow one, just for a couple of hours, so that you can go to these places and do these things cos let's face it, you can't just turn up to that kind of stuff as 2 adults (well you could in Butterfly World) as people will think you're seriously dodgy. Not a good look. But I think there should be some kind of rule to the borrowing. Like only from 11am onwards so that you can enjoy the usual weekend lie-in, and at the first sign of tears and tantrums the parents should step in to take over. Seems like a fair deal to me.