A dream childhood

I sometimes wonder if my son, despite (or perhaps even because of) being an only child, is having a dream childhood.

If I were to ask you what a dream childhood for a boy might look like, what would you say?

Maybe riding bikes?  Maybe even motorbikes?  Check, and check!

Maybe fishing with dad?  Check!

Maybe doing all kinds of handyman things with dad?  Check!

Maybe lighting fires (not bushfires, obviously) and learning to play with them (safely)?  Check!

Hmmmm, what else goes into a dream childhood???

Dogs!  For a boy, you'd just about have to say dogs, right?  Check!

Playing in mud and dirt and sand?  Check!

Kicking the football around with dad, maybe even with mum too?  Check!

Lots of food?  Check!  A bit of junk food?  Check!

Dressing up as superheroes probably needs to go in there too, right?  Check!  Oh!  And movies!  Check!

And then there's the stories that I used to be told by my parents about the golden era of their growing up years.  I'm sure you've heard similar ones.  You know!  The story that goes something along the lines of heading out to play with your friends, only coming home to eat or when it gets dark?  Running or riding around, playing, getting into harmless mischief, knowing that any of the mums will tell all of you off if you get into not-so-harmless mischief... you've heard that story, right?

Well, the Little Big Fella will now be able to tell his kids those stories because today, at about 10am he raced into the house desperately trying to find me.  A couple of the people who live in the cul-de-sac behind us only get to have their kids during the school holidays, and the kids were calling out to the Little Big Fella to join them.

Who could say no?

So off he went!  And you know what I felt?  Guilt.  Guilt!  Do you believe it???  I felt guilty because my son wasn't under any single person's direct care.

Are you kidding me???

Thankfully I quickly realised that he was living the dream so I put away my guilt and happily fed him when he came home for lunch, before running out again to play for most of the afternoon.

And when one of his new friends climbed over the fence to play at our place for a while, I fed them jelly (it is school holidays after all), and they played until it was nearly dark and they were called inside for dinner.

At one point, late in the afternoon, myself, my next door neighbour and her backyard neighbour met for a quick chat in the corner of our yards.  And we smiled about the fact that our kids are getting to live this dream childhood.

Oh!  And if you're wondering what I did with my essentially child-free day, I cleaned the office and planned for our trip next week.  Yep!  Livin' the dream :-D