Out of her mum’s house: 8:55am
Back to her mum’s house: 3:28pm
My little girl was very excited today as she was coming to spend some time with us. But mummy had told her that she had to go home first which I already knew. I still don’t understand why she has to go home when she is due to come with me at 3.30pm. If you look back over the times when she get’s back to her mum’s house it is just before 3.30pm.
I got her home and, as the Social Worker asked, I went to the gate with her (not quite the door) and said I’d wait for her. I just strolled up and down outside the house but within about 30 seconds she came bounding out of the house. Mummy said she could go the way she was already dressed (so why did she need to go home again??). I told her she needed her coat (it’s cold here and it was raining) so she went back in and got her coat and her bag (so I could get to do her homework with her which must be the first time in history that anybody has been excited about homework – I haven’t done homework with her in over a year now!).
We go back to the house to pick up some money as we were off to meet my wife in a cafe (she was on her break) as she wouldn’t get to see my little girl today (or any Wednesday) because she was working. We had a drink and a muffin and had a good laugh. My wife said to me when she came home last night that everybody was commenting on how happy we all looked together and how happy I looked with my little girl. It was a good day!
My little girl wanted fish and chips for dinner so we got some battered fish and smiley faces for dinner from the supermarket.
We got back home about 4.30pm and first thing’s first, I put the dinner on. While that was cooking we did my little girl’s homework. That really was good to do. She is now just learning joined up writing so I get to feel like a dad again and explain to her about how joined up writing works, the size of the letters etc. etc. It took us all in all about 30 minutes to do her homework. After putting the dinner on, that took us to about 5.15pm.
At 5.25pm dinner was ready so I dished up and my little girl helped with that. I got the plates and cutlery, she got the drinks. I explained that’s how it works here – when I cook (which is most of the time) my wife get’s the drinks and I get the plates and cutlery and when my wife cook’s, I get the drinks. She said at mummy’s house she is just left to get everything herself which I thought was a little sad. We don’t have a dining room but we do eat together.
My little girl wanted to watch a DVD while we ate dinner so we eventually compromised on Shrek (which we both like) – she wanted High School Muscial 2 to begin with and I wanted Hercules (Disney cartoon version which is very good – unfortunately my favourite, El Dorado, we only have on video and the VCR isn’t plugged in). So we sat and watched that.
She ate all of her dinner – the fish, the smiley faces and ALL of the peas (which I made far too much of but she wanted a lot of them!) and it took her almost 40 minutes (she eats very slowly).
At around 6.15pm we cleaned up. She got washed and we put her toys away (that we played with briefly after homework). Left the house here at 6.25pm and got back to her mum’s about 6.27pm and I walked her to the gate. As she went into the house I heard her mum talking to her. However she shouted ‘Bye Daddy’ at me which was just the icing on the cake for me. That made my whole night. I shouted ‘Bye, see you tomorrow’ back to her.
It was a fantastic night and we both really enjoyed it. What I did come away with though, other than a great deal of satisfaction at a well organised and happy night, was a feeling of why this is happening. There is no reason for these ‘restricted’ 3 hour visits. No reason for no overnight stays. No reason in fact for contact to stop. Or is there? Nobody seems to know when you ask them, as X doesn’t say. Which woudl lead anybody with an impartial mind to wonder, is this just all for revenge?
