Harry's little surprise

I must admit, I get it pretty easy. I leave the house for work at about eight every morning, returning home between six and seven in the evening as a rule.

This means that, by the time I get in, Harry has already had his tea and his bath, and is ready for bed. My role in the week is to look after him before I go to work, including feeding him breakfast, and then putting him to bed at night; Melissa deals with everything that goes on in between (except on the two days she works, in which case it's the two nans who are in charge).Now that Harry is walking, he's a real handful. Looking after him is an energetic business and it's no wonder Melissa looks worn out some days. On Saturday Melissa was out for the day, leaving me in charge of Harry. This is a rare occurrence, so I was determined to make the most of it. Harry was in a brilliant mood and we played all day; he even ate everything I put in front of him.

But one thing that I've learned over the last 16 months is that things change quickly. Having had his tea, I took Harry upstairs for his bath. He was happy, playing with his toys while I splashed him with the shower attachment. I then turned my back for a second to get his towel, ready to lift him out.

When I turned around, though, I was shocked to find that Harry had, how can I put this, had an accident (it's only the second time this has ever happened).Suddenly, looking after Harry didn't seem so easy. I whipped him out of the water, dried him quickly and put him in his cot - crying by now - while I disinfected the bath. Half an hour later, order was restored but it was stressful episode.

As Melissa pointed out later, she has to deal with these kind of episodes every day, so I got very little sympathy.It reminded me that as much as I would love to spend more time with Harry, it's not always easy. So I now have the utmost respect for full time mums and dads – it’s difficult to think of a more demanding job.

Clarification

Melissa has asked (told would perhaps be a more accurate description) me to clarify my previous entry about bathroom cleaning.

She believes it makes it sound like we have a "disgusting, dirty" bathroom. We don't. Even when I clean it.

So here goes with the apology:

I have been asked to point out that the article entitled 'You try to help...' was in no way meant to imply that Mrs Wright's bathroom was anything other than spotless at all times. Any impression to the contrary was entirely unintentional.

Now can I come out of the spare room?