The Day Bingo Came Around for Tea

I knew it was coming, alphabetically it had to be coming, I have just done a good job of filing it in the forget section of the brain. The sheer joy on the little lady’s face as she left her classroom on Friday was meet with the same level of fear, clearly visible on my face.

“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. It’s our turn to have Bingo”

Bingo, or FFS, bloody thing, as I prefer to call it, is the class mascot, who comes home occasionally and shares your evening and then you get to record the “fun” in a journal. Only this year he had upped his game! Not content with a quick overnight sleepover, he has decided to disrupt an entire weekend.

Being honest, I don’t actually dislike him. It is the level some parents go to, competing it seems at who can do the coolest or most original thing. There is always one, that super organised parent who has arranged a flying lesson for him. Or Susan, you know Susan? She’s that mum, who is class/parent monitor, organises the Christmas fair, yes, thats the one. She made the hand crafted quilted bag that Bingo travels in and has the perfect house, the perfect family and her little Jonnie, has halo and can do no wrong. Well Susan decided that Bingo should join the family on a spar retreat.

“No Susan, it’s not OK to take a Teddy Bear on a spar weekend to compete with a flying lesson. Just take the bloody thing to KFC and be done with it”!

Safely at home I took a quick glance through Bingo’s Journal to suss out the challenge. All the normal ones had been taken. He had been to Mcdonalds twice, swimming once, the park, a national park and countless grandparents houses. I had to be on my game this time.

Most of my suggestions were thrown straight back at me, he didn’t want to walk to the shop by all accounts, or build any lego and to my disappointment, didn’t want to go for a swim in the local river (and not return). See, even under stress and duress, I still attempt to help out my fellow parents, we are a tribe after all.

What did Bingo do you ask? Well to be honest, not a lot. But he probably deserved that. Judging by some of his adventures he needed a rest. He baked a cake, he played with play doh, he even got to play shops with Barbie and Baby Annabel too and judging by the new injury he has received it appears he even did some painting.