Mulling over parenthood…
As first time visitors to the Isle of Mull, we took one of the tourist trips out to Staffa to see Fingal’s Cave, and to Lunga, one of the Treshnish Isles, to take part in some puffin therapy (highly recommended!).
On Lunga there were hundreds of puffins and, if you sat quietly near their burrows, they would happily ignore you as they went about plucking grass to line their nesting chambers.
We spent two entrancing hours on Lunga and then it was time to rejoin the boat along with our touristic confreres that included an overly loud family comprising Grandma, Grandad, Dad and two youngsters; a little brat and his older brother.
The two kids, particularly the youngest, were not really aware of any behavioural boundaries, and it was clear to see why. Their dad, you see, was inept. No other word suffices. It didn’t help that ‘Grandma’ constantly shrieked at the youngsters, so folk standing many yards away bore witness to two generations of adults with nugatory parenting skills.
Still, their performance inspired this:
You’d have thought he was trying to spoof us
When he named his kids Torven and Rufus
And they both misbehaved
‘Cos the pillock displayed
The parenting skills of a doofus!
