A BIT MORE BEAR

Someone said yesterday that at some point, fathers should take their sons camping. Even if it's just in the back garden, dads should pack up the tent, build a fire and show their boys how to roast a marshmallow or point out the stars or roll out a sleeping bag.

My dad never did any of that with me. I don't think it's because he didn't want to, I just think that he didn't really know how. We did other things - I know it's a bit sad but we used to watch Mastermind and count up how many questions we got right. He taught me to ride a bike too, which was about as outdoorsy as it got. And to be fair, he does still point out the constellations, throwing in little facts about nebulae and dwarf stars and the Milky Way. I don't even mind when he gets the physics a bit wrong.

I'd like to do it - I'd like to take my sons camping, when the time comes. We'll get a telescope! Maybe we'll learn to fish, or paddle a canoe. There'll be kites and bikes, and rocks to climb, maybe we'll get an axe and learn how to chop firewood! We'll fry eggs and sausages and bacon and we'll squash them all in massive hunks of bread and then we'll go home covered in dirt and our faces wrinkled with laughter and sunburn. It will be awesome.

The thing is though, like my dad, I don't really know how to do any of that. I'm a nerdy musician who works in an office with software engineers and gets overexcited by chord progressions. I'd like to learn though, how to be a bit more Bear and a bit less square. But then I imagine fatherhood to be a bit like that journey of discovery, heading off into the wild unknown and making the best of what you have - even if you're an indoorsy kind of guy. I don't think you have to have all the answers, just a thirst for adventure and an excitement about sharing it together with your family. And maybe a few warm blankets and a decent pen knife. I can't wait.