Lolloping

It is easy to feel nostalgic for summers past, however the reality is I remember my own childhood outings so vividly as 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 we might go to ‘Grandads’, the family run art shop for some inks for my dad.

Most of these outings were errands my dad needed to do and while he made them fun I spent most of holidays at home.

When maximum boredom was reached by all my dads array of made up game repertoire was rolled out; Hallway Cricket, Yoghurt Pot Bowls, Bimpy Bompy, an inane game of

trying to pop up from behind the sofa without get hit by a ping pong ball while saying “Bimpy Bompy!” (things were getting desperate now) and maybe when my mum came

home from work we would walk the quiet suburban streets before bed listening to my mothers witty running commentary on all the neighbourhood streets and its inhabitants.

(“Do you eat cheese” was what we said as we passed the house of the woman who did surveys for a living)

But mostly it was laying about, sucking my thumb and trying to find telly to watch.

The days were endless, the holidays stretching 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 it even got a special name ‘Lolloping’ and I won the award for it apparently.

And while these times must have felt like agony at points for my stay at home dad remembering this stuff has helped me enormously as parent.

A parent with a child who eventually struggled to leave the house and so when others were off on fancy holidays, meeting friends, attending clubs I remembered these times

of doing very little from my own childhood, remembering how my dad had made those days of not much at all, how he bought the fun to where we were at, what was

manageable (and probably affordable too).

So I knew I could and would make home the best and nicest place it could be just like my dad did for me.

All the while reminding myself just how good lolloping felt.