Three's a crowd & empathy
I had a sly chuckle to myself this weekend, a routine stop-off during a long drive turned into a gauntlet run and a major empathy session.
We had a "long" drive south at the weekend. It's amazing how distances become so much longer once kids arrive. So far we're at the having to stop for food stage, at some point in the not too distant future it will be stopping with a moment's notice to use a grate, then we'll get the "are we nearly there yet" routine. Travelling by car has its major drawbacks in this respect.
Financially it costs, too. Because when we stop to feed Junior, we spend a King's ransom in Starbucks on coffee and a cake to pass our time. Inevitably the Starbucks is above a Borders, so it's magazines on the way out too, and this slap bang in the middle of what used to be a 3 and a half hour journey. Make that closer to 5 now!
So on the return journey we called in Mothercare World, a bigger one than we have at home, and had a scoot around. There, on the top of a rack of clothes we were looking at, was a box of In The Night Garden toys. He already has his two favourites, Iggle Piggle and his best friend Ms. Daisy. He saw, he wanted. So, we caved, and grabbed Makka Pakka. With a spot of luck we'll get it off him at some stage and not have to buy it. Hmm. Maybe.
Moments later we were on the other side of the same rack. By which time there was another Dad, playing the same Russian Roulette with his son with the same box of Class A drugs. Oh, how I empathised, having had exactly the same experience not a heartbeat earlier.
Three's not a crowd for them... In The Night Garden has a specific set of three characters, the Tombliboos. Iggle Piggle and Upsy Daisy are very individual but there's a clear bond there (not least as Iggle Piggle is obsessed with sleeping in Upsy Daisy's bed, usually without her knowledge and it being a surprise when she climbs in.
So Makka Pakka certainly makes a crowd in this particular threesome. Ahh, the till beckons. And in front of it there is evidence. Evidence of past attempts by kids to get the next in the series. Evidence of parents allowing the toy to be carried round as a pacifier to avert a strop but with no intention to allow it to lighten the wallet. These are the dumped toys.
No such luck for us. Any attempt to remove Makka Pakka from the firm grip he was in was met with the strongest of protestations. OK, we cave, we'll buy it. Any attempt to temporarily remove Makka Pakka from the iron grip to simply scan it at the till were met with the same protestations.
In the end we empathised with the parents who had gone through exactly the same gauntlet, some obviously losing the battle but winning the war. Unfortunately we lost both. But we do now have a crowd at home, and that's not really a bad thing.
