On Tuesday last week it was a fairly nice day so I took Elliott and Arthur to the park over the road. Our house is on a main road which is a bit noisy at times (though to be honest I often find so called ‘quiet’ places noisier than our house, being woken up at 5am by the sound of birds is not my idea of fun)

So yes we live on a main road. I don’t mind it, it is quiet at night and during the day there is always a helpful Geordie about to give me a hand with a buggy crisis or tell me my kids are gorgeous when I feel frazzled. Another advantage is the fact that I have the park over the road to my house.

It is a nice park as it is locked at night so drunk teenagers can’t pull up all the flowers and pour cider all over the kids play area. Off we went to the park, I didn’t bother with the buggy as A&E are good enough at walking now to just hold my hand and walk up the road to the island and then down the road to the park. They know that they have to be very careful next to a road and both held my hands very tightly. A very kind ambulance driver stopped to let us cross. We got to the park and played football, then Elliott and Arthur played on all of the climbing frames.

Both can now climb up the steps of the climbing frame and sit at the top of the slide and slide down without any help from me so I sat on the football and yelled encouragement whilst they demonstrated their climbing skills.

I think that is one of the hardest things to do as a parent. To let go a bit and give your kids the freedom to do their own thing without too much hand holding and hovering. I think if they rely on you too much they become careless and think you are going to be there to catch them every time they do anything. It was actually Grandma Alison who made me feel confident enough to let them just get on with it. She said ‘if they can do it, they are ready for it’ wise words indeed.

Here is a video, I will say my heart was in my mouth watching them sliding down the slide. I dont think I give them enough credit, they are better at sliding than I am that is for sure.