Walk

My daughter really wasn’t keen on walking home from school yesterday.

It’s only half a mile.

We’ve been having trouble with her managing the walk to and from school, particularly on a day when she does PE or walks to the other school site, which is a little distance away.

She gets tired easily. So we sometimes drive there and walk back, and sometimes - on an extra busy day for her - drive both ways. If anybody dares to judge me as being a lazy mum clogging up the road in my 4x4, then I’ll fight them. (I am pretty lazy, so I'll give them that, but I don’t have a 4x4. And this is NOT about me, so they can butt out).

I thought it was going to be a problem when her lip started to quiver as we told her we’d be walking home with her brother, who needed to burn off some energy and was doing this by zipping around on his scooter knocking down small children and pensioners.

But her dad stepped in.

“It’s not far. We’ll make a list in our head of what we’ll see on the way and tick it off. OK?”

She looked unsure. He carried on, manfully. I looked sceptical, womanfully.

“First, there’s the Red Lion pub. 

Then there’s the crossing, where the lollipop lady is.

Then there’s the baptist church. 

Then there’s the garage. 

Then there’s the house with the white lions outside. 

And then there’s our road, and our house. OK?”

She nodded. We started walking. We reached each landmark. She started looking out for the next one, and getting excited when she saw it. We arrived home, a trail of scooter track-imprinted bodies lying prone in our wake, and my girl with weary feet but a fresh smile.

Her dad. He’s good at this, you know.

Video is Tom Waits - The Long Way Home