Losing the fun-factor and bald-headed dads

It's too early to be up on a Sunday morning.  
I don't have a baby that has woken me up.
I'm not just coming back from an all night party- ( Mia and Joss always look slightly horrified that I could ever have been that young ! )
I haven't even been for an early morning run.
NO, I'm up this early on a should-be lazy Sunday morning because I have to go to work later and there's stuff I need to get ready.
So far I've cooked an enormous saucepanful of bright red spaghetti

 And made about a ton of blue play dough.

Not really hard, demanding or time-consuming jobs!
Mostly, when I tell people what I do, they look at me incredulously and say, 
"what, you mean you get paid to just, like, play with children and, you know, chat to their parents. Wow, I wish I had your job."
And in lots of ways it's true.
Except that years of playing with children take their toll.
And nothing is more exhausting than having fun all the time!
And I'm sitting here, listening to the rain pattering on the roof, watching the blanket of grey cloud moving slowly across the " was blue," sky, wondering what part of today's "Fun Day in the park," will be the most fun.
The getting intermittently soaked to the skin, the setting up and clearing away, the constantly reminding parents that we are not there to play with their children for them but to provide activities so that they can play with them. "
But it never really works.
" Oh," they say, " our kids love getting messy.  So glad that you do it, so we don't have to."
And I will be sitting there, on a Sunday afternoon playing with other people's children thinking about how my own children are at home without me..  
And even though they are teenagers and no longer like messy play ( however red the spaghetti ) I know that they still like it when I'm home. 
Who else can they shout at when they haven't done their homework or demand help from when they  can't find their make-up or hair gel. 
And the truth is, sad as it sounds, staying at home with Ninesh and the kids is my idea of fun these days.
Perhaps it's because I know the kids will soon be searching for their fun on further far from our living room.  
Perhaps it's because I spend so many weekends and evenings working that what I used to call relaxing, I now call fun.
Or perhaps it's just that I'm getting too old for the  real-deal, jumping in feet-first, truly infectious fun-factor.  
Give me an afternoon with a good book and a long walk on the beach any day.
I'm thinking about asking our tortoise  if he would consider a life-swap.

The other day my friend's 4 year old daughter was having an argument with her dad upstairs in her bedroom. After a little bit of shouting and grumpiness on both sides, she turned to him, sighed and said:
" It's ok dad, you can go downstairs now.  And take your bald head with you!"