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Friday Diary: The Cameron v Johnson Grudge Match

Shelagh Fogarty explains the importance of the wider family to a child's upbringing and looks forward to the Paralympics.

By Shelagh Fogarty

9 Sep 2011, 10:37

* I’ve been thinking about extended families this week, for a number of reasons, personal and professional. The latest figures would seem to suggest working families are finding it harder and harder to pay for childcare and all the discussions I hear end in the same place – geographically dispersed families and the loss of support that used to be provided by relatives. I’m sure it’s true in many cases but in my own family’s experience and a lot of examples I see around me, the wider family is still very much in the childcare mix. The after school drop off at “Nana’s” is happening day in day out across the country. Where that isn’t an option, I see friends enter the fray with parents sharing a quid pro quo arrangement with trusted friends. An aunt of mine is very ill at the moment and I’ve been thinking about how much impact she has made on my and my siblings’ life, along with those aunts and uncles who’ve passed away. Lucky doesn’t begin to describe it. They are, and were, all people worth knowing, valuable characters to spend time with, influences to absorb unwittingly as a child, then gratefully as an adult.

* Not blood family, but just as important in my view, is the Godparent/Godchild relationship. My Goddaughter #2 spent a couple of days with me this week and just how broad the notion of family can be struck me. At 15, she’s the same age as two of my nieces and even though we don’t see eachother as often as we’d like, there’s something very special about a child knowing that someone was asked by her parents to take a special interest in her throughout her life. It was easy to say ‘yes’ fifteen years ago. It’s even easier now that I know her. She’s already quite something! (enough proud Godparent …..)

* I’ve been following David Walliams epic Sport Relief swim in the River Thames this week. Such a shame he got a bad stomach bug on the first day, but my goodness what a man. It’s hard enough to swim a fairly short distance when your tummy’s not quite right, but to do so over miles and miles of cold, dark water shows extraordinary tenacity and commitment. I’ve been recalling my comparatively paltry Sport Relief swim last year in The Serpentine in temperatures of 4 degrees. Yes it’s colder than the Thames is today, and yes I was ambushed by a pike at one point, but when it comes to Walliams, make no mistake, you are looking at a giant in sport. Everyone down to the river to cheer him on!

* I met a few other giants in sport yesterday. I broadcast my Radio programme from Trafalgar Square on International Paralympic day. Tickets have gone on sale today and demand is expected to be high. I’m not surprised. While Oscar Pistorius’ story has grabbed most of the headlines, the Paralympic Games will have plenty more top notch performances to offer. The young swimmer and Gold medallist Ellie Simmonds was swooped on by hundreds of children excitedly chatting away to her and getting swimming tips. Jerome Singleton, the US sprinter who’s beaten Pistorius at the World Championships this year told me he had no concept of disability until a few years ago when he began competing in earnest. An amputee at two years old he was raised by his mother to live as physically fully as anyone. So many performances at the Paralympic Games next year, not just Pistorius’, will challenge anyone’s notion of what it means to be disabled.

* A final nod to the marvellous sight of Boris Johnson and David Cameron playing tennis alongside wheelchair players in the square. This was no friendly. A grudge match if ever I saw one.