For many children in England and Wales this is the first week of the Summer Holidays. For many lucky children they will be going on holiday with their parents, as a family entity or with others – family, other families. This is an exciting and fun time!

In the week leading up to our summer camping trip on The Llyn the back room of our house became piled high with camping equipment which then had to be shoe-horned into the back of an aging estate car leaving just enough room for family members to squeeze into. The outside of the car was pressed into service too: kyaks on the roof, bikes on the back and a trailer or dinghy in tow.

The following few weeks were, without exception, just brilliant – sea, beaches, cliffs, hills and (often!) sun – so much fun and shared activities – stuff you couldn’t get properly into in the normal world of work and school. I loved it!

One year, on the first afternoon I broke a toe on a rock in the sea whilst providing a passable impression of an outboard on the back of the family inflatable dinghy. It didn’t stop my engagement with the marvellous madness, I  cheerfully hobbled around carrying boats, rucksacks full of sandwiches, garden spades for damming and stream diversion etc etc. It did though slow me down a bit, giving time for reflection (rare when parenting young children) and a song! – a whole song with lyrics and everything – all at once (well  over  two weeks):

THE BAD DADS (1990) – ‘Love you forever.’