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The Guardian

Saturday, 9th February 2008
The Single Dad

“I work 13 hour days during the week, and spend a day and a half with my six-year-old son, Sam, each weekend - so when I head back to work again on the Monday it can feel like I've barely had a weekend. I wanted to take Sam somewhere where he could play with other kids, but when you go to these "family" places and see all the other families together it can feel like rubbing salt on the wound. So when I found out about a company that runs holidays for groups of single parents and their kids, I jumped at it - not only for Sam's sake but as a way to kick-start my social life having recently separated.

The first one was great - at an outdoor pursuit centre in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire. The company, Single With Kids, has online forums where people can chat before they all met up; so we arranged to meet the southerners of the group half way and travel up with them. There were six blokes, 18 females and about 24 kids. We all got on great.

For the first half hour, all the kids were clinging to their parents but after that they were off running around the place and exploring. At the centre, the adults took it in shifts to keep an eye on the kids, and the company had all the excursions and times and things sorted, so we could relax. We went on a day out to Gulliver's Theme Park, where we could split up and meet back again at certain times - there were no scheduled "group" activities; the company just made sure everything ran smoothly.

On my second trip to York over New Year's Eve I found myself outnumbered - there were 18 women and me! It would have been nice if there were a few extra blokes, but it was fine . . . we had a great time. The best thing is that there were no romantic ulterior motives. If it happened it happened but that isn't the intention. In fact, it's really refreshing to find a company for singles that isn't all about matchmaking . . . it's just a social group for people in a similar situation who want to get away.”