NG3 Sept/Oct 2020

Time flies. It’s a cliche but it appears to be
pretty true. It feels like only yesterday that we
became parents and suddenly my oldest is
about to go to high school. We’ve got used to
being together as a family unit since April as
we’ve pretty much followed the COVID advice,
and now that things have relaxed somewhat
we’re able to get out much more. Which in turn
means that our son can escape with his mates.
The plan this year was to get him increasing
independence ahead of going to high school
but the pandemic put an end to all that. He’s
managed to stay in touch with friends as there
is infinitely more technology than when I was a
lad (ie. he’s got Fortnite). But it’s only recently
that he’s started to be able to physically get
out and see everyone. And it’s great for us as
parents, as we get a bit of a break, but also a bit
scary as he’s off into the wider world.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s staying pretty local.
He’s not heading into the inner city and we’ve
done all the usual checks (such as triangulating
with other parents to check our kids really are
hanging out with who they say they are). The
good news is that as much as we trust our son
we have the ability to check exactly where he
is due to his love of his phone. And here’s a
sneaky trick for all parents, insisting they take
their phones with them means you can track
their movements. It’s brilliant, my wife and I
have basically turned into Big Brother. I can’t
wait for the day when he tells us he’s at location
X and we can reveal that we know he’s at
location Y. That’s the sort of situation I will look
forward to him trying to explain his way out of
(“I think there must be something wrong with
your phone Dad”). Having said that, even at
his age he’s much more tech-savvy than his
parents so I’m sure we can’t can’t rely on this
for long.
Whenever he gets home he rarely goes into
detail about what he’s been up to. I think it’s
mostly a combination of kicking a football,
talking about Fortnite and playing on park
equipment. Not really much different from
when I was a lad. Back in those days we
kicked a football about, talked about the latest
Commodore 64 game and hung out on the
swings. As my mum worked full time we were
generally encouraged to go and hang out
with our friends in the summer, either at their
house or outside somewhere. As I grew up on
the Isle of Wight this was rarely dangerous. The
worst we did was spend a few weeks playing
on a building site completely unaware of the
dangers. I had an entire summer holiday where
a friend and I recreated a complete football
World Cup in Subbuteo (for the record Wales
beat Brazil 5-2 in the final with an Ian Rush hattrick).
But we generally hung out on our bikes,
wasted loads of time and spent our minimal
amounts of pocket money on sweets and
computer games.
And it’s easy to look back on those times as
golden years as they were our first taste of
freedom from the family unit which is exactly
what my son is experiencing now. So while it
does scare us as parents that we have to let him
go into the big world (especially after so many
months of not being out), we know that it’s
going to help him grow and gain confidence.
And to be honest, when
he’s out it means I can
finally get some practise
on Fortnite myself!
Edging into my forties, I’m
a wrangler of two young
children who are either
going to keep me eternally
young or drive me to an early grave. I’ll be sharing
some of my experiences of parenthood and my terrible
attempts at staying relevant!
noonelikessubtitles@gmail.com
Dominic Murray