Learner Dad: Our kids are drawn to sand as if it’s sugar

We all got in the car after dinner and headed for the beach. Five minutes after we arrived, my son was sitting in a large hole he’d dug for himself in the sand

Picture: iStock 

Do you intervene when a fight breaks out between your kids? I assumed everyone did until I had an eye-opening chat with my friend yesterday. He has three kids around the same age as our two, and he and his wife stay clear of any skirmishes unless they become overly physical.

I can see where he’s coming from. Our two are great, they can spend hours pretend-killing each other during some made-up game on the trampoline without actually falling out. (Falling out with each other, as against falling out of the trampoline - we have a net.) But eventually, they crack and things fall apart. Our son climbs out of the trampoline crying, his sister says she didn’t mean it.