Manchester Evening News

You’d think bullying couldn’t get worse than

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“DADDY big tummy, daddy big tummy, daddy big tummy,” Emma whispered, while Victoria tried to stifle giggles.

I put my head around the corner of the kitchen and Emma, sensing she was on to a sure-fire way to garner attention, spoke confidentl­y “daddy big tummy, daddy big tummy, daddy big tummy”.

Thomas wasn’t sure what was going on so decided the safest thing was to laugh at me.

By this point, Victoria was openly chuckling, and Emma was not letting an

opportunit­y like this slip away, so decided to loudly shout: “DADDY BIG TUMMY, DADDY BIG TUMMY, DADDY BIG TUMMY.”

This was the second bullying incident of the day.

At work, a little earlier, a colleague suggested I reminded them of Mr Tumble. For those who don’t know, he’s a very successful children’s TV entertaine­r with many positive factors, but not somebody I’d ever aspired to be.

The ‘daddy big tummy’ thing eventually ran its course. What confused me was where she’d got such a mocking insult.

After a little investigat­ion, it transpired that the twins and Victoria had seen me removing a T-shirt from the dryer and swapping it for the one I was wearing, which was covered in various breakfast foods.

Unfortunat­ely, I was not as hidden by the kitchen wall as I thought I was and Victoria had said to Emma, “we don’t want to see daddy’s big tummy”.

There are a few worrying issues here. The first is a general lack of respect for the male figure in the household. It’s certainly something I couldn’t imagine happening in the home of George Clooney, who also has

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Giving your child access to wildlife will foster a love for the natural world

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