Earlier this week, I took my daughters Helen and Izzy on a day trip to Calais. It was a final (and I admit elaborate) day out before the end of the summer holidays and the return to school. I spotted this graffiti on some old WWII defences on the beach and it stopped me in my tracks.
I had to take a picture of the graffiti, not so much because it would make a beautiful image, but because it was such a poignant statement. Time and again my readers express the desire to spend more quality time with their families. More often than not I hear the sentiment expressed by dads, simply because they usually work full-time and feel guilty for not being around for their kids and partner.
Even I find myself wishing I could play more with my kids. As the main carer for them, school term time is often a blur of school runs, homework, meal preparation, going to sports clubs and so on. It’s part of the reason I am such a big fan of the six-week long summer holidays. The children and I get to do crazy things like go to Calais for the day and go camping without being tied down to a strict schedule.
I’ve done a couple of different edits of the picture. As you can see, the image at the top is black and white and I’ve removed some of the surrounding messier graffiti while the image below is colour, ever so slightly enhanced and I left the messier bits in place.
I just wonder how many people have stumbled across this statement and had the same hope to spend more time with the families? I suspect many people probably feel this way.
