Boredom...

It is easy to feel nostalgic for summers past when trips outside feel few and far between.

However, the reality is that I remember my own childhood outings so vividly precisely because they were few and far between.

There were trips to the dump to see the “filthy but very tidy men”; drives to the bakery to buy hedgehog bread and sausage rolls for a “bakery lunch”; or perhaps we’d go to Grandad’s, the family-run art shop, for some inks for my dad. Most of these outings were simply errands he needed to do and, while he made them fun, I spent most holidays at home.

When maximum boredom had been reached by all, my dad’s vast repertoire of made-up games would be rolled out: Hallway Cricket, Yoghurt Pot Bowls, Bimpy Bompy – an utterly inane game involving popping up from behind the sofa without getting hit by a ping-pong ball while shouting, “Bimpy Bompy!” Things were getting desperate by then.

And maybe, when my mum came home from work, we would walk the quiet suburban streets before bed, listening to her witty running commentary on the neighbourhood and its inhabitants.

But mostly it was lying about, sucking my thumb and trying to find something on television. The days felt endless, the holidays stretched out forever, and I loved every minute of being at home: wearing what I wanted, eating my favourite foods and doing what I was best at. In fact, I was so good at it that it even got a special name: “lolloping”. Apparently, I won awards for it.

And while those long summer days must, at times, have felt like agony for my stay-at-home dad, remembering them has helped me enormously as a parent. A parent with a child who eventually struggled to leave the house.

So, when others were off on fancy holidays, meeting friends and attending clubs, I found myself returning to those memories of my own childhood: remembering how my dad had made those days of not very much at all feel special; how he brought the fun to where we were, to what was manageable and, probably, affordable too.

And so I knew that I could, and would, make home the best and nicest place it could be, just as my dad did for me.