Sunday afternoon sat in the local soft play area and I am contemplating the week.
I have saved for this treat but after having to pay £8 a child, I resent having to then pay an additional £1.50 to watch my children softplay. As I look around I see a plethora of single dads trying to keep their children engaged. We were lucky to have had no snow… but snow would have presented the cheaper option of sledging.
It is a strange sight to see – you can spot the single dads who have weekend or day contact; some desperately trying to enthuse their children whilst others are resigned to sitting along with a coffee reading the paper, on their iPhone or laptop.
I watch the look the single mums give them; the groups of mums waiting for their children to come from parties, chatting about the banalities of life with their pitying looks.
It’s strange, as a group, single Dads could be the perfect market for these venues. They could be seen as a group that soft play areas would want to encourage, but instead we are the unwanted. The lone man watching children in a play area is not the image many places want to project. Now it would be nice to have a single night at the soft play and bring your kids … get to socialise and not feel you are seen as trying to pick-up every lady you speak to.
MMMMM single parents soft play …….. perhaps some adventurous person will try it soon!
I am fortunate as I have found someone to share things with. I wasn’t looking but it sort of happened, like the best things in life. I believe in serendipity, things just happen and I must say thank you to all the old friends who read last week’s blog and got in touch, it is nice to know that you are never alone and people want to help out.
It is still tight and will be for a few months, but it never rains, it pours. And on Tuesday Night I had car crash on the M3 and have written off my car. I had my most disturbing thoughts though in the ambulance and whilst at the hospital – what would my ex tell the children if I hadn’t have been so lucky? The realisation that, having been separated for 14 months, I still haven’t changed my will and I still don’t know who to put down as next of kin? Even more worrying for me was the fact that since my children had moved home I had their new number in my phone, but my phone was bouncing around in the car and couldn’t be located and I had no idea of their number. I lived for three days without my mobile phone and soon realised I need to have a hard copy of details on the phone, not just a back up but a manual address book I could look up names and addresses in!!
It has been a strange week and I have learnt a lot about friends and those who care; the person who spent 7 hours in an A&E unit with me, the friends who txt or called reading last week’s blog, the people who helped out when I was in bed for two days… also about the people who turn situations to their own advantage and try to use events to feather their own nest.
Either way it has been eventful and I am looking forward to soft play singles LOL!!!
