The Things we do for Love

Nothing will put me off finishing one of these

We are at lunch one Sunday.  There's me, my husband, the two kiddlies (aged 4 and 2 at the time) and our friends with their little boy who's 6 months old.  We are chatting, reminiscing, laughing at how our life stages can be mapped by the changes to the ways in which we socialise together.

Singletons: Pub straight after work then out clubbing until someone realises that it is the next day, we're still in yesterday's clothes, and we really ought to go home.
Established / Married Couples: Pub, followed by a restaurant, then back to someone's for more drinks until someone remembers that sleeping on the floor is really bloody uncomfortable and that we have got a comfy bed at home.
Babies: Sunday lunch.  Sod the pub, we're too tired and can't find a babysitter. 

We elected to eat at our friends house this time as while taking a baby to a pub can work, taking mobile, extremely noisy children is a risky and expensive business.  That, and our friends had access to CBeebies, which is guaranteed to buy you at least 30 minutes of peace to try to vaguely catch up on each other's lives.

The dinner is delish and the children are behaving nicely.  It feels civilised, relaxed, really enjoyable.  And then the baby pukes all over his highchair, down himself, and a little bit onto his dad's sleeve.  Forks are lowered, conversation stops.  Nobody puts food in their mouth for we are in the presence of hot baby sick.  

Dad picks his son up, wipes him clean, cleans the highchair, wipes his sleeve and we all carry on eating.  Parenting makes you properly hardcore like that.  No expulsion, explosion, stink or stench stops a meal for longer than it takes to clean up said mess.

We eat some more, laugh some more and agree that we have to do some pretty grim things as part of loving and caring for our children.  And then, just as we've started on the pudding, my son's voice comes loud and clear from the downstairs loo:  "Mu-um, I've fi-niiiiiiiished."  I sigh, put down my spoon and head to my smelly destiny.   Now that's love.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Soundtrack: The Things we do for Love - 10cc