Park Life.

I had planned to take John to the biggest of our local parks - we even packed some stale cornflakes to feed to the ducks. But once out and on the High Street, I realised that it was a school holiday, which of course meant the park would be extremely busy, especially with the sun shining brightly. Instead we opted for one of the smaller, less public parks.

At first it was lovely. John had a whale of a time on the swings and was determined to succeed in climbing up to the top of the slide himself. Plus it was just him & I in the whole park. Some peace and quiet for John to run about without me worrying about him getting knocked down by an older kid. We walked hand-in-hand around the grass and over the bridge. John even got to play with a dog that was out for their afternoon walk, which of course, made his day.

It was a lovely way to spend our afternoon, perfect in fact, up until John had his very first full blown toddler tantrum in the middle of the path. Why was he tantruming you ask? Well, as we walked along, John decided to crawl back into his buggy. 'OK, no issue, you must be getting tired, let me just strap you in so you don't fall out.... BOOM!' Kid went nuts. His body went rigid as I tried to strap him into the buggy, & he then threw himself to the ground when I suggested he walk instead. A few people passed by, and surprisingly, their judging looks meant nothing to me. I knew John was absolutely fine, just vocalising his disapproval (rather loudly).

After a few attempts of "come on silly, there's no need for that" and even a try of "OK, Mummy's going home then. Ta-ta." I found myself carrying home a screaming child whom limbs were spinning in all directions. 

All because of a strap on the buggy...