The Horrors of Fatherhood

Oh a horror happened today.

The girls discovered eBay a couple of weeks ago. They were amazed that rather than saving up their pocket money for toys, they can convert it quickly and easily into cheaper toys via the computer. So far this has resulted in the Cabbage Patch doll population of the house rising from 3 to 9 for the princely sum of £8 in total.

Of course, it didn't take the dynamic duo much time to realise that they could generate more money by making their unwanted toys available to others on eBay. In some ways, this would be well cool. We have tons of Sylvanian Families that go for a pretty penny. I wasn't opposed.

Well, not until Emma decided that the first thing that would be going were her books. Not her current books! No, I've trained them a proper respect for them. No, these were the baby books that she has had passed down from Lara. The ones that really did it for me were her Dr Seuss books. These were the books that taught both of them to read and to enjoy reading. I never thought for one moment that she would ever want to get rid of them, but she does. I had to intervene and rescue a couple of them - specifically The Cat in the Hat and the Cat in the Hat Strikes Back - and slip them into my library.

It was bound to happen and I know that we cannot keep everything forever, but it made me understand why women seem to want to keep every babygrow and bootie. These were the artifacts that represented the change of the girls between being babies and being children and really the passing of them from the domain of the nursery into well, my domain of reading and imagination. Oh I know that sounds very silly, but it really struck a chord.

All subsequent references to boyfriends, nightclubs, drinking, pregancy and 'Grandad Neil' will be treated with the contempt they deserve...