On a bright sunny, yes sunny, day we head to a beautiful country village with some friends. We had a lovely day with the children running through fields, rolling down hills and paddling in streams.
Following a lovely picnic, we head to the gorgeous village pub for a drink (not an alcoholic one, although later you’ll wonder if I indulged in the evening)
The pub garden had a lovely tree house, swings and a climbing frame. The boys were happy playing and we were happy chatting and enjoying the sunshine, bliss.
Then the pub garden went quiet and one of the children came running over to me saying ‘look at Bam’ For a split second I thought, no, I don’t want to look at him, what could he be doing!?
So I turn around to find that he is hanging from the outside of the tree house. Yes, he had decided to climb over the tree house terrace and was now proclaiming how he was going to jump.
I ran over to the tree house feeling the eyes of the people in the pub garden on my back. AArrghhh, how am I going to get him down? It’s high, he could really hurt himself. So I try to negotiate with him, explain that he’ll hurt himself……Inside though I’m feeling quietly confident that he won’t jump, the rest of the Mums in the pub garden will silently praise me and I’ll walk away with a slightly smug look on my face!
Then he jumps, yes, there is a gasp around the pub garden. Can I catch him? No, of course not, he’s about 25kgs! As he lands to the floor, I look at him in despair asking if he’s ok. He’s ok, thankfully, but my slightly smug look isn’t happening – instead my head is down, his hand in mine and we head off to a quiet area of the garden.
He explains he’s ok, but bit his tongue on the way down. Well that was the least of his worries, he could have broken both of his legs!! So I sit him down and very calmly say ‘Bam, why do you think Mum is cross’ and he very calmly replies ‘cos it’s not good for the environment!’ Hmmm, where do I go from here?
Slugs and Snails Tales 