The 200th Post

200 days, 200 posts and somehow people are still reading. Seven months on from my first post you would have thought I would have learnt a great deal about myself, my child and I would be closer to answering the great questions of life. However if anything, more questions have emerged and the only things I've learnt about myself is that when unsupervised I still eat like a teenager and my tolerance for other people's children is quite low. But there have been some things I have learnt about the sphere of parenting and they're not all nice, happy, fluffy things but some are just don't tell anyone I said this.

1. Cbeebies is very addictive. This is probably not unknown but I had no idea it was closer to Crack that Crack itself. It's bright, it's fun and it's laced with a property that's still undetected. This property renders both child and parent incapacitated and the sight of both drooling and locked into the set is not a pretty one. Weening yourself off it is nigh-on impossible. Embrace the child crack my friends embrace the child crack.
2. The Weather Man is your God. For me it has been winter all the way through writing this blog and there is no sign of it changing as I listen to the BBC forecast in the background. I yearn for the day the wee man and I can just spend an afternoon in the park with a football instead of soft plays.
3. Soft play areas are awful places (but necessary). Last week I wrote a Baby Centre blog about this and I could go on and on about the subject. Big children where they shouldn't be, unsupervised children causing havoc, parents not giving a s**t about their children and all for a good amount of money. I sigh every time we go in. The boycott will continue.
4. Your child will surprise you. This is the nice part and there have been no end of proud moments for me. From the wee man being able to climb, to him using his right hand to draw. Something, no matter if it's little or big, happens everyday and each conjures the same great emotion in you.
5. The boredom's what'll kill you. If you are a stay-at-home-parent you will know exactly what I mean by this. If your only interaction in a day is your child then it's not long before your talking to your Yucca plant thinking it's a person. It's like a pressure cooker and if you don't vent to people you'll explode. This is the hardest part of being doing this as a man. The women I know have the other women and I have my Yucca plant.

Thanks for reading everyone and please share with anyone who might be interested.

jpr