LIGHTHEADED KLAXON
Am I sure I want one? I mean it’s a bit late because I’m three months pregnant, not by accident or anything, I did do it on purpose. I am also a nanny.
But I’m sitting in the park while one of my charges plays football. I got a coffee, and went to the cottage-garden type bit where they have hanging bird feeders. I was enjoying the lovely spring day sounds.
Within minutes lots of parents and children (ok, six children) turned up, and the let the children loose. No pigeon is safe. They are brandishing sticks. They are lobbing bits of gravel. They are shrieking. They are blundering through low-lying shrubbery. They are pushing each other over and crying. The parents occasionally whine ‘Sophia, Jacob, stop it’ intermittently but in a way you might say ‘oh it’s raining’
There is a HUGE adventure playground in this park so I don’t know why the shrubs and gravel gardens are holding so much appeal.
I’ve been a nanny for ten years and I’ve never let any children terrorise pigeons. Just why? If mine shriek for no good reason they’re told sharply to stop it. They have a freer range in actual child-dedicated play areas, obviously. They aren’t allowed to brandish sticks in each other’s faces.
I know it’s not the children’s fault really but oh it’s irritating!
braces self for cries of ‘you don’t own the park you know!’ And ‘they’re just being children! They’ve been locked up for months!