My sons found his lifelong best friend

The "pleasure maker", the "happiness stick", the "pork sword", "your bit", or simply "penis", whatever you call it is one of the unique things about being a male and in the past week, aged six months my son has found his.

When I say "found it" I am not implying that he ever lost it you understand I am simply inferring that he has discovered its existence much to Her Majesty's horror. As men we know the comfort factor that our little friend brings us, grabbing it is the first thing most men do upon waking up and its the last thing we probably touch before falling asleep. Its a multi functional tool too. We remove bodily waste using it, and we get our good ladies pregnant using it, finally according to many ladies we also tend to think with it most of the time. Men understand all of this, women sadly don't. Ask a man about his thoughts on his penis and watch a warm glow appear on his face, ask a woman her thoughts on her breasts and get ready for a slap. Its what makes us different.

So when bathing young Mitchell last Monday night you can imagine the difference in reaction as he reached down and gave it a good old tug. I had a proud father moment, and next to me was a look of shock especially when he grabbed it for the third time and smiled broadly as he had done so on each of the prior occasions. "Yes my boy you have realised that you are a man!"

Now in talking with friends over the weekend it appears that a little boys fondness for his little boy does not go away and if anything increases through toddlership. The mother was still mortified as she explained the frequency of touch and pull, the father and I shared a knowing nod of the head, Her Majesty rolled her eyes back as if to say "so this is a glimpse of our future", yes my dear it is, so best learn to roll with it......

A toast to being a man!

  

Travelling Father

As part of my so called 9-5 I have to travel quite a bit and the past few weeks has seen this really come to the fore. First of all I had a week at HQ in Belgium that saw me away for four nights, two of which were on British Airways. Then five days later I headed off to Dubai and Saudi Arabia for nine days. Back to back trips that were certainly not my choice but had to be done. There are some interesting things that one learns and that come out of such trips though so lets go through them;

• Leaving is always the hardest part not only for you the traveler but also your spouse. I have found that its best just to be dropped at the "drop and go" section of the airport and get it out of the way. I also generally take Kim out for breakfast or lunch if the nanny is around
• The first flight is tough but once you land you get into the swing of things. The same seems to be true of your spouse. I have also been on the other end of the traveling arrangement and the sooner the stay at home spouse can get into a normal routine the better
• Technology is great. I make a plan regardless of time zones to FaceTime or Skype at least once a day and back this up with calls and sms's. Maintaining contact is key
• You will miss little steps if your child is young like mine. This is normal just be sure that you celebrate them when you get home
• Coming home is tough, adjustments will have to be made. The stay at home spouse will generally have gotten into a routine and this changes with your routine, accept this. Meanwhile I generally find that after international trips involving over night flights it takes me two to three days to recover. Unfortunately you just have to accept it and find a way to deal with it yourselves as there is no one size fits all solution.

Ultimately more than anything trust plays a huge part in the relationship with your spouse. Trust that the traveler will call, be ready to answer calls, show respect to the stay at home spouse. Trust that the stay at home spouse will do their best for the child but call if they need help or an ear.

Traveling away from a family is tough, but is also a fact of life these days. How you handle it is up to you but can be a lot easier than hard if you approach it the right way.