It’s been a fairly quiet week in the Payne household; Ness has been on good form, even attracting the odd ‘glowing’ comment. (GOOD BLOKE TIP ALERT – Tell your pregnant wife she ‘Glows’)
I’ve been the opposite of glowing as I’m currently in the middle of a month of ‘getting a few things out of my system’ before my new, all consuming hobby turns up. I love going to gigs and although my lovely wife says I won’t have to give them up, the truth is that my time and money won’t be my own anymore, plus I turn 40 years old in September – time to leave it to the young folk I think.
As part of my ‘last hurrah’, I’ve been going to as many music festivals as I can physically stand. It was the V festival in Chelmsford a few weekends back and last weekend it was the Reading festival. After that I’ve got a beer festival and then a rather grand Big Lebowski birthday party. I’m going to be hurting by the end of all this.
Now you may be wondering how I negotiated all this with the wife. The answer is combination of planning and promises. Basically, I planned to give her my credit card and promised not say ‘How much!?’
Talking of which, it’s now only 8 weeks to the birth and although we’ve been progressively buying small items over the last few months, the serious business of shopping has begun. Now fellas, if you think shopping was alien to you before, brace yourselves...
The list is over 100 items long! 100 items! Moses basket, cot, linen, clothes, toiletries, medicine, travel items, pushchair, car seat, car – that’s right, we’ve even bought a new ‘family’ car. Fortunately for me, Ness is doing much of the shopping online and there are some great websites to grab bargains on, especially second-hand baby clothes. They grow out of them so quickly that often an item has only been worn once or twice. We picked up a brand new baby monitor on www.Mumsnet.com for £25 (£75 in the shops!).
So the spare room (and my credit card) is filling up rapidly but frankly, I’m just thankful I’m not being dragged round Mamas and Papas and Mothercare for hours on end.
Next week: Resistance is futile!
Dads Space contributor Simon Payne loves going to rock gigs, adding to his collection of Aztec tattoos, good wine, football and his PlayStation. He's also the co-founder of Mind Adrenaline, a team building and events company that specialises in organising creative days out for organisations around the globe.
He readily admits he is a bit of a late starter.