Jon Tait is an outdoor journalist and a full-time father to his son Jack. In his first column for athome, he talks about his little man's love of computer games – or should that be watching daddy play them?
It’s my own fault, I know.
I shouldn’t have introduced my two-year-old toddler to the joys of Wii Sports. One more cry of ‘Wii Wii’ and I swear I’ll go mad. Not smash the car up, hit the bottle mad, mind - just the little twitch in the right eye, making daft noises kind of bonkers.
He loves the boxing. Though that’s not strictly true. He likes to watch daddy do the boxing. Sweating, red-faced and puffing-out-the-cheeks daddy throwing punches in mid-air and trying not to curse every time he gets knocked on his backside on the screen by some girly Mii called Rachel with glasses and dodgy ‘80s permed hair.
Three one-and-a-half minute rounds can get taxing when you’re a middle aged father who only packed up the booze and fags when the child was born. And he knows it. When he goes to the fridge and asks for an ice lolly, there’s no way that the out-of-shape, overweight, father-figure ambling behind him is going to say no. Then there’s ‘Ape Escape’ on the battered old PlayStation. That’s another favourite of my toddler’s. When he runs around making monkey noises, I know it is time to get the controller out.
But don’t get the idea that we only play on the computer in the house. He is daft on most sports and we go to the driving range for golf and he attends a Little Kickers football class once a week. Puddle jumping and throwing stones in the river are other favoured pursuits.
Truth is, I just want an easy life – between washing the dishes, cooking meals and changing dirty nappies, we don’t have much time for these groups and classes that all the young mums seem to go to. Ah, well, it saves Bad Dad flirting with them. The little tearaway is desperately shouting ‘Box Box’ now and grabbing my hand, so I guess it’s time to go. At least you don’t have to see me in Lonsdale shorts, ladies.
Picture credit: yum9me
About the author
Jon Tait is an outdoor journalist with a new book Northumberland - 40 coast and country walks' due out soon from Pocket Mountains. He is also the press officer for the Northern Football Alliance League and a full-time father to his son Jack. He tries, and sometimes gets it right.
