Father's Day

It was Father's Day on Sunday and in our house that is a day of very mixed emotions. My own dad died when I was still at school, and I still remember the pain of Father's Day without a father to buy a card for. I have a step father, he is not a substitute for my dad, but over the years he has become special in his own right and he has been a fantastic grandad to my children. The mixed feelings are much the same for my children, Robbie is a brilliant step dad and he has a good relationship with each of them but that does not replace their dad. Being a step parent is always a challenge, and in my case there was no vacancy to fill, they have a mum and a dad, so I needed to find a different sort of role with Robbie's children, more like a grown up friend than a parent. Of course from the other angle it is difficult to accept a step parent, how dare your parent inflict this person on you without giving you any choice in the matter and apparently without taking your feelings into account. My own stepfather didn't always get it right in the early days, but because of him I know that a good step-parent can make so much difference to family life.

Robbie misses his children when he is not with them especially on Fathers Day and birthday's, but we have some happy times when we are all together. Robbie's main present was the latest in the series of British Transport Films DVD's but it hadn't arrived on time so he is looking forward to getting that later in the week. He also had a couple of books, a big glossy book about railway blunders and a little book packed with railway facts. He loved both books, but by the end of the day I was getting a bit fed up with all those facts. That little book has a section on timetables and lots of information about Bradshaw's, he is bad enough as it is without a little book of facts to encourage him to bombard me with random railway information!