Last week I was treated to a gleeful and epiphanous reawakening of my social life, and like Harry Potter when he received the Hogwarts letter, or Neo when he took the red pill, I am now entirely unable to go back to the world as it was before.

Any parents will know the drill: when you have kids, your previous life of carefree sociability takes a hit.

It’s unavoidable, and soon it becomes rather funny that your bambinos and bambinas have ended up with an events calendar far more full than your own.

My proud three-year-old diva of a daughter enjoys more than her fair share of party invites and play dates. As such, she now has a diary that would have put Princess Margaret’s to shame, and certainly leaves mine looking like that of a pre-pumpkin Cinderella.

Still, this is the natural order of things, and when embraced, it can yield a lot of fun for yourself in some rather surprising places.

Exhibit A, ladies and gentlemen: the holiday camp kids disco. Welcome to Dadfest…

Last week, sproglet and I took a beautiful staycation break together at one of a well-known Dutch holiday company’s UK forest resorts.

I’d been looking forward all year to a few days of just the........

© Shropshire Star