Mean Londoners

Forget what anyone has ever said about Londoners being friendly and considerate to people with kids because that has never been my experience. Instead of the typical things you hear; like people helping to lift the stroller up stairs, moving out of the way on the bus or pavements  and holding doors when you are coming through, all I get is people avoiding my gaze or pretending they hadn't noticed me when it is clear they had. Okay maybe once in a while I run into a nice considerate person but ninety percent of the time what I have described above is accurate; women are the worst at it too. Sometimes I think it is because I am male and people consider me capable without needing any help? I wonder what the female's experience is!

A loaded question

On Friday I went out to lunch with a friend and she asked me one of those typically simple but loaded questions I am still debating if I gave the right answer or not.
Oh you have changed so much now, she gushed as she watched me fussing over T.
Thanks, I responded basking in all the admiration.

‘So would you say he has brought you and your partner even closer together’, she asked as she took another sip from her cup filled with green tea.

-Pause-

How do I answer this without falling victim to one of those infamous George Bush-type gaffes? I wondered. Do I lie and say no, my partner and I now live in Pleasantville and we don’t bicker at all; everything is all rosy? Or should I admit how we are at each other’s throat about the other’s approach and how T has started playing us one for the other good cop, bad cop style?

Oh I dunno! We bicker like every other couple but the reasons why we bicker these days are different, I answered. We don’t bicker more and we don’t bicker less; just the dimension of our bickering has changed. Now instead of me and you, it is me, you and him! Sort of like being in an intense love triangle with willing participants. If you have ever been in one of those, you will understand.

She looked at me as if she was slightly confused.

You have never been in an intense love triangle then? I asked.

She nodded and moved on to something else.

Baby Harness

There is this man that walks past our house once often with his daughter walking ahead in a harness. Every time I spot him going by I am baffled by how he does it. I am not anti-harness per say, I just don’t think they are for everyone especially not me. When we had T’s baby shower, a dear friend gave us a harness as a gift and I remember thinking wow, I can't wait to use it. My first opportunity to do so came when I went to meet a friend at the park. Soon as I popped T in the harness, he started acting up, screaming, kicking and walking around in circles. Not one to give up easily I persevered until he almost ended up in a pond. That pretty much put an end to the first trial and the harness didn't get to see daylight for some time.  Months later, I was going through T’s nappy bag when I once again stumbled on the harness. I was going to the shops so I thought great let’s try this again. This time he was a little settled other than the walking in circles issue. My biggest obstacle though was the uneven slabs of concrete that made up the sidewalk and the amount of dog poo that littered them. With every step T almost took a tumble. Keep going, I kept encouraging until he stepped on a wobbly broken slab and fell face flat down. To make matters worse his hands ended up in a patch that looked like dog poo that had just been washed off by rain. That was it. I bade goodbye to the harness and have never used it ever since. To be honest I don’t miss it because of its strange functionality.

The other day T and I were in the park and another toddler came whizzing by pushing a Vitech baby stroller. T was quite intrigued by it so I asked the toddler’s Mum if he could have a quick go. He was absolutely thrilled and loved every minute pushing it around. Consequently I guess if I had to do the whole walk training with another baby again I will be getting one of those Vitech baby strollers instead of a harness

Let’s talk about this Government's approach to adoption

The UK government recently unveiled the Adoption map of the UK and I am confused by it's point really. With all the talk about speeding up adoption how is this going to help? What adoption needs is the abolition of all the red tape, better funding and dedicated resources, not some colour coded map devised by graduates locked up in an office. Anyway if you are interested in the map, it is available here: http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/n/map08c_alt3.pdf