Opinion: Time for Falkirk children to play traditional outdoor games

So much about our way of life has changed in the last few months – note I’m now saying months, not weeks as lockdown has gone on so long – but there are some aspects that are to be welcomed.

Forget for a minute the strain that being cooped up indoors with our loved ones has brought because it has also had its good points too.

If your family is anything like mine you’ve probably spend more time talking during lockdown than you have in the previous 12 months. And I don’t mean chatting but real discussions about things.

Well we all have, from the youngest to the oldest we seem to have more time to actually take an interest in what others are doing.

I’ve been doing regular video calls with Emma and the children, and likewise with son Gary, who must be really bored not able to spend time with his friends or go to the gym because he has been very talkative!

My mother has been doing a lot of reminiscing and do you know what, it’s not a bad thing. I’ve actually taken the time to listen to her properly (what an admission but all you busy daughters out there will know what I mean) and ask questions about the people and the places she remembers. For who knows how long I’ll have that opportunity and I think it is important to talk now about family matters.

Of course, the First Minister said I could visit my grandchildren at the weekend as long as we maintained the two metre of social distancing.

It was great to see them but it was also very hard. Little Sophie didn’t really understand why she couldn’t come across and sit on gran’s knee like she would normally do.

I even took my own picnic with me and we managed to have lunch of sorts siting in Emma’s garden.

On my walk home – wasn’t the weekend weather glorious – I saw something that I hadn’t seen for years. Lots of children had been drawing colourful chalk rainbows on the paving stones at the start of lockdown but this was a game of peevers.

The ‘bed’ was expertly drawn and it was all I could do to stop myself from hopping down it ... but thankfully I didn’t as there were quite a lot of people going about on such a sunny afternoon!

But it did start me thinking about all those outdoor games we used to play as children – I warned you that I’d been spending too much time with my mother.

Of course, a favourite was skipping and we used to spend many a lunch hour and breaktime at school with our ropes.

I was never that agile and didn’t like having to jump in – always scared I was going to get a skelp with the rope – so used to regularly find myself as one of those cawing the rope for others.

Then there were Chinese ropes which were long strings of colourful elastic bands that we used to put round our ankles and do all sorts of jumping games.

Who remembers Red rover when you used to have to run across the playground or garden and try to break the opposing group’s chain of bodies?

Kerby bouncing the ball of the pavement kerb, kick the can and tig were all favourites of ours.

Nowadays so many youngsters sit all day on their phones, laptops or consoles.

Perhaps one good thing to come out of lockdown will be a return to these traditional outdoor games.