As regular readers will know Mrs Penguin went away for the weekend with a friend and I had a brief experience at being a single parent.

Admittedly I wasn’t alone the whole weekend, my parents chipped in when I had to go out and do a few things but jobs like getting him off to sleep, making breakfast, changing and getting him to sleep were very much in my realm. Plus of course things like gardening, washing up, clothes washing and ironing – well sort of.

I managed to get all these jobs done but notably without any actual time to myself. I think that the whole weekend afforded me a sum total of 2 hours free which I used to simultaneously watch the Bahrain GP and make a start on my Lego star destroyer. Sorry, that should be my son’s Lego star destroyer, I am of course just building it for him.

However that was an interesting experience. Actual personal time to one’s self is next to non-existent with a small child when you are on your own. I’ve learned one thing from this experience that the last thing I would ever want is to be a single parent. I can remember the time back in the 90′s when the Tories were vilifying single-parents as being a bunch of sponging layabouts living off benefits and of course the routes of all societal evils, they don’t say much about them these days, after all they’ve found asylum seekers to fill that gap.

I suppose if you are lucky, have a good understanding employer you might be able to be a single parent and work while the child is at school but in the first few years unless you’re on a high income and can afford costly childcare then it is simply impossible to not fall into a position of dependence on the state unless grandparents can be drafted in. It’s certainly not an enviable existence when you consider it.

Anyway, I coped, Little Penguin was happy but the late nights when I normally get my free time weren’t possible because he wanted to curl up and sleep with me. I only failed to do the ironing, not out of laziness but simply that despite being rather nifty at most things electrical I haven’t got a clue how to work the iron so I gave up.

That said, a very interesting and eye opening experience, well worth it.