Saturday

On Saturday morning Ibolya and I had to face up to a new reality of parenthood and consider how we incorporate discipline into our relationship with Ruby. Mary, our childminder, had complained on Friday that Ruby had made two of her other children cry by pulling hair and biting. Two things she does all the time to me that I've always thought was fun, without malice and just part of our rough-and-tumble. I'm now doubly guilty that I've encouraged her and that I'm indirectly responsible for hurting young children! So from Saturday onwards, we've got to get used to setting boundaries of good and bad conduct and reprimand anti-social behaviour. Things that don't come naturally to us and that we'll find hard to do.
After our parental naval gazing, we took off for a bright, wintry, Saturday morning walk for breakfast at the diner on Chamberlayne Road. After that, Ibolya went shopping, leaving Ruby and I to carry on down Ladbroke Grove and on to my favourite road, the mighty Golborne Road.