Hard labour day

Missed my Wednesday run - labour day. Kids off school, husband at work....usual 'holiday' situation. What to do? The day started with a play date for my son. Two hours quietly building all the new lego we had bought from the USA, I thought. I had envisioned the two 6 year olds quietly engineering police helicopters, space shuttles and the scale model lego White House. They would be seen but not heard except for the odd exclamation of 'what fine propellers you have built there, my friend'.

Fat chance...they decided to make lego Bayblades and proceeded to take all the heads off the lego people and use them as the spinning tops. As the playdate degenerated into mild anarchy, my daughter offered to play chess with the visiting boy. Hooray, I thought, redemption! Not so, my jealous son started tormenting his sister about it being 'his' playdate....so we moved on to air(head) hockey... a game with no cerebral point whatsoever...

For the afternoon, I decided a quieter form of self torture: the movies. At least I can fall asleep safe in the knowledge that my children are being dumbed down by some brainless feature. I usually do a deal with them: I watch something with them and then they must watch something with me. This is how I have got them to watch the 'Iron Lady' and 'Lincoln' without so much of a peep of protest. They understand the concept of 'quid pro quo' very well.

We went to see 'The Croods' about a cave family escaping Armageddon whilst dealing with father-daughter relationship issues. And actually it wasn't half bad. But I don't understand why children's movies have become this unrelenting stream of fast-paced action. It leaves no time for thought or reflection. I prefer the slower paced 'Lorax', 'Gruffalo' and 'Where the Wild Things Are'. All of which are adapted from books and have an actual story line and a 'point'.

Anyway, movie, play date and labour day successfully completed.