This toilet training lark really is shit.

I hand on heart say this has been the most difficult and frustrating stage of my child’s development. The most annoying part of it is I know he is fully capable of ‘going on demand’ but steadfastly refuses to comply, fully.

Nearly twelve months ago on Max’s second birthday I can distinctly remember thinking, he won’t be in those awful nappies for much longer. At times he had used other methods of toilet, like the potty, a bush and of course, the bath.

Other mothers had given me their respective tales of success. ‘I had my daughter trained before her first birthday’ said the mother of one 27 year old thumb sucker. I appreciated the collective pressure, but was adamant that I would wait until my child had ticked all the I am ready boxes.

As good as my child’s genes are, I think this is a time that the mixed characteristics of both his parents have not done him, or us, any favours.

Confident, and strong in his own mind, just like his Mother. Lazy, happy to let others clean up his mess, just like his Dad. Not good for this stage of development, but great news for 1001 carpet cleaner.

Anyway, he’d cracked it. Showing a real upset when he was uncomfortable. Using the potty. Toilet in both an upright and sitting position. Letting me know with a nano-second to spare. Brilliant.

Then there’s nursery. I’m fed up of washing there ‘stock’ pants and jeans after Max has been through his own clothes and spare set. He’s not budging or playing ball.

We’ve agreed that they need to be stronger with him, referring them to his gene pool data. Fingers, and not legs, crossed for the next time at nursery.

Bet it was a breeze for everyone else?

There's no room at the Inn, or even the building site.

We’ve just received our first Nativity casting. Max will be playing the part of the Inn Keeper. Now I hope this selection is based on his rather wonderful ability to stop other children from passing, rather than his supping of my beer at the recent school frog racing evening.

As parents, much as I suspect all are, we are charged with getting an appropriate outfit for the performance. Simple you might think, and I hope it will be, yet I suspect my child will refuse to wear any costume that doesn’t make him look like a builder or a farmer.

From a young age he’s had an obsession with all things building. Part of the motivation for us building our own home is the fact that I’m sure he will love the process.

Therefore I shall be explaining that all builders enjoy inns, and therefore it will be good to get an understanding of how those in charge of said inns, behave. And if that doesn't work, I shall just slap on the hi-vis jacket, give him a tankard and accept the other parents' glare.

Hello And About Me, Well Us Really

I'm a 30 year old widower, who cares for a soon-to-be 3 year old boy, Max. We live in lovely little village in Staffordshire and will soon be starting our own house build project.

After my amazing wife died, I quit my job as a company executive (general manager for a £15Million turnover business), to care for my young son full-time. Max was only 7 months old when Samantha, his mother, died.

As I'd had a half-decent job there was a few quid in the bank, which meant there wasn't an immeadiate pressure for me to return to work, cutting cloth according of course.

In the aftermath of our perfect life obliteration I did think about what I might do in the longer term. However difficult it was to comtemplate life on our own, it was time to find an existance for myself, that would couple with single parenting, but also give me something other than Max to get up for in the morning.

I started going through my lifelong ambitions, helicopter pilot was quickly ruled out when Max got very disturbed at the sight of his daddy in a chopper. That and the vast sums involved to effectively only qualify as a part-time pilot.

Another burning ambition had been to write. In fact before Samantha had died, she'd made me promise that I must follow this dream, if only by doing a distance learning course or writing short stories for our child.

So I took a course from the London School of Journalism, which as well as giving me an idea of how freelance writing might work, it gave me a worthwile distraction from other tasks in hand.

Anyway, time has gone on, Max is virtually 3, has been building up to his funded sessions at nursery, and I've had more time to write. I feel I've already had some great successes. I've written for Practical Parenting, Oneup Magazine, Justdads.co.uk, BBC, Walsall Observer and Walsall Football Club.

This blog will detail our day-to-day growth, comment on relevant research, discuss related news topics and hopefully have a very enjoyable tone.

I hope you enjoy reading it. Please come back, feel free to comment and get in touch with anything interesting.