You won’t believe me now, but you’ll miss Peppa when she’s gone.

This week I re-entered the Hell that is soft play. A nightmare I thought we’d grown out of. It was every bit as hellish as always, only they must have known I was coming and imposed a ‘screamy kids only’ rule.

Needless to say I don’t miss soft play at all. There are things though, from the pre-school days, that at the time drove me mad and I now really miss. Things I thought I’d be glad to see the back of but weirdly now the little one is 8 I find myself getting nostalgic about. Cbeebies of course goes without saying. I mean Topsy and Tim, how are those guys doing? There are others too.

Reading the same story a million times a day
At the time I must confess to hiding We’re going on a bear hunt on more that one occasion when I just didn’t have another swish swash in me. A similar fate befell Room on the Broom. Though that was only because similarities kept being pointed out between mummy and the lady with ‘long ginger hair which she wore in a plait’
Nowadays I’m lucky if I get to do the reading. Littlest girl insists on reading to me now, even at bedtime she’ll only allow us to read a page each,it’s really lovely hearing her read but I miss the bear hunt.

The non stop questions
Why? Why? Why?
The sound track to any parent of pre-schoolers life. It makes your brain hurt. Sometimes I used to make up answers to save time. I thought I’d be glad to say good riddance to that era.
Now though small girl can Google along with the rest of us. Occasionally she’ll ask what my fave chocolate is or what baby animal is the cutest. No one ever asks the big questions of the 4 year old though. “If we were a family of cats do you think we’d still watch Strictly?” remains my personal favourite.

Playing dress up
We’ve all wandered around Asda catching the eye of smiling strangers until we realise that we’re still wearing a tiara (we have haven’t we?) Dress up was one of little girls favourite things to do. Yes there were times when the living room was covered in glitter (fairy dust) and I couldn’t wait for less messy play.
Now though I’m not allowed to join the in the dress up. We went to Singalonga Frozen earlier in the year at the theatre. Little one looked fabulous dressed as Elsa. My ‘Coronation Anna’ dress remains in the wardrobe as I was forbidden from wearing it.

Peppa
I KNOW!!! She’s a spoilt, irritating, condescending, patronising know all. Her dysfunctional family are no better ( I’d bet my last pound daddy pig was knocking off Miss Rabbit on the side) Now Peppa has been taken away though, I miss them all. I miss being irritated by her. I miss wondering why they made episodes so short you barely had the time to put the kettle on before they’d ended. I miss making up the after the watershed version about the parents.

The children all getting older is nice, watching them grow and become more independent is fantastic. Just sometimes though, I yearn for snuggling under a blanket with a rusk and Bear Hunt!

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