"Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom."

The weather was awful this morning and after dropping Mrs M and Seth off we headed home. At Opeie's request we got back in to bed with a big stack of books (Opeie's favourite place). We ploughed through about 15 books and then had a snack. Opeie was clearly getting a bit bored and was desperate to leave the house. He started doing his little awkward dance and told me he needed a pooh (which means a wee), but decided to take care of both parts of his business at once (this is the first time he's done this, it's usually one or the other). Well on that note and feeling confident that he wasn't going to go for a while I thought we'd try and go out to make the most of his early toilet routine sorted.

We headed to the padded play area not far from ours. This is only the third time I've taken him, he loves going but both myself and Mrs M have issues with how clean these places are, but me and Opeie have been at home for the last three weeks though, not venturing out to far while he's potty training and i think we were both going a little stir crazy.

It may seem like this is turning Into another one of my recent potty training updates but I wanted to talk about soft play area politics, I mean what are the rules? Opeie was having a whale of a time running about and squealing excitably but the more excited he got the more children came over to see what was going on. To the point where we had about 7 children joining in with our game. Is this alright? I'm wary about taking pictures of Opeie while we're in there for obvious reasons but what are the rules with engaging with other people's children? I did keep looking into the seated area to see if I may have been upsetting any parents but nearly every one of them was sitting Staring at a mobile phone oblivious to what their children were actually doing. So I just carried on, Opeie was having a great time and I think the other children were happy getting some attention from an adult.

I'm always going to be the sort of dad that gets involved in everything they do and i always go in to play areas with them, especially Opeie for safety reasons. A couple of the children were smaller than Opeie and in there alone (am i part of a minority that thinks this isn't right?). Any way i got buried in balls, climbed on, wrestled and one girl even gave me a hug but being so paranoid about upsetting anyone i froze and it was really awkward. Should i have any reason to feel bad if their parents arnt making the effort?

Opeie loved every moment of it and i think its important for him to see me being friendly to other children as ignoring them sends the wrong signals and i want him to feel like he can approach other kids while were at these places. So why did i feel a little awkward is it just because of the way society is or is this a feeling that has been caused by the media etc? I'm not going to change, obviously. I'm just putting the thoughts and frustrations out there...