At last the boys are back on the town – albeit for just one night
DOUBLE TROUBLE FOR A FIRST-TIME DAD OF TWINS
A GOOD man is hard to find.
Due to time constraints, lifestyle and offspring, I rarely saw ‘the lads’, who were now scattered across the country.
I wasn’t about to take it personally, but one had even moved to Hong Kong and the other to Canada, which made social get togethers difficult.
What I needed were geographically convenient men to inject some laddish bonhomie into my life.
I’d found Stu in Tesco, who was great for proximity, but he worked nights so was ineffective as a raucous drinking partner.
Fortunately, I had my eye on a tall chap, who I’d noticed pushing a buggy past the house.
It wasn’t long before I knew his general routine and swooped to chat amiably about good nurseries
Matt, as he’s known, turned out to be quite the social butterfly and knew some other men with children.
We even set a date for a lads’ night out.
The next man was recruited by me after a brief chat at the supermarket till revealed we were both the father of twins.
He was with his wife and I asked if he wanted to go for a drink.
After noticing the fear in his eyes, I explained there would be other men present but his wife wasn’t invited as this was just ‘lads’.
We were now a gang of five and a date was set for a night of excess in a pub close to home, so we could get back if we were needed.
A few weeks later, I hit the bar and found myself waiting alone for an hour.
Eventually, the ‘lads’ started to arrive with the common excuse the children wouldn’t go to sleep.
Let the banter begin. In this case, it was mostly banter about anxieties surrounding child development, toilet training and spousal issues.
The boys were back in town and it was good to share our very similar challenges.
Suddenly, Justin announced he was leaving because he had to take the kids to street dance first thing in the morning.
At this point, we all realised it was 11pm and even though Oliver Reed never left a drinking session due to family obligations, things had changed so we all started to pack up.
We made firm plans to do the same in a fortnight. It never happened. We set further dates for an even grander outing involving a meal.
It never happened. We’ve continued to make arrangements for extravagant nights of decadence with no actual dates, which makes me think we’ll meet again when the children leave home.