Full time dad

I’m currently recovering after spending four full days looking after Harry on my own.

Melissa decided to get away for a couple of days with her mum and sister, leaving me in charge. Now I’ve done the odd day here and there, but never for that length of time so I was a little bit nervous.

I was also slightly concerned about Harry’s reaction. Although he’s not particularly clingy, I did wonder what effect his mum being away for four nights would have on him.

Thankfully, I needn’t have worried. Harry did say “Mummy, gone” a few times while shrugging and raising his hands, but that was about it.

My tactics were simple: tire him out as thoroughly as possible during the day so that he would sleep well at night. This seemed to work pretty effectively – although the fine weather helped – and I even found time to do a bit of housework just to prove to Melissa that I haven’t forgotten how to use the washing machine and iron.
I did get quite a bit of help along the way from my mum and nan, who were on hand to provide tea, cake, support and so on when I wanted some respite.

There were also a couple of minor disasters along the way. On the first evening, while I was wrestling with a zip that had got stuck on one of his coats, Harry managed to find a way through the gate at the bottom of the stairs and was half way up before I managed to grab him.

One another occasion, he managed to get hold of some of Melissa’s make-up and was in the process of colouring our bedroom carpet before I stopped him.

All in all, though, it went very smoothly even if it was tiring. On Sunday afternoon I took Harry to Ty Mawr for a walk. Half way round, Harry decided he wanted to go on my shoulders. It was a warm day and quite hard work. When we reached the car park, Harry wanted to go around again – which meant my shoulders took some more punishment. I’ll say this though, it was more enjoyable than going to the gym.

And the hardest part about the whole experience? Going to back to work.