Close your eyes and think back ... before kids, before marriage, before now... What did you used to do for fun? No peaking! When I close my eyes I see myself poolside, a trashy summer read in one hand and a icy fruity drink in another. In those days there may have been children nearby – telling their parents they needed the loo or if they could have chips with lunch. But these children didn’t belong to me.
My whole idea of fun changed, pretty much overnight, when my first daughter was born nearly eight years ago. It quickly became apparent that having fun equated with having enough sleep. If I didn’t have enough sleep, I was no fun. When faced with the decision of watching a mediocre television drama or sleep, sleep would win every time.
As the girls grew into toddlers and preschoolers, and I caught up with my beloved sleep, my definition of fun turned into what was fun for the kids. When we first moved to this area (pre kids), I had a vague idea that there was a playpark near the train station. After kids, I became acutely aware of every playpark within a 10-mile radius of our home, and could converse with other mums on the finer points of each one (is that the one with the zippy thing, the one with the toddler swings, the one with the sand pit?) On a trip to Paris when the girls were preschoolers, we were blown away by some of the public playparks there. That made the trip ... not the Seine or Eiffel Tower.
The girls are in primary school and can swim on their own, so I can take them to the pool and lounge beside with my book in hand. But now you can often find me in the pool with them, doing belly flops and racing in the deep end. It’s so much fun!
Photo credit: aeter
