We've been back to Bluewater with Jake today as he wanted to have another go at spending his birthday money. When we got there he decided that parents are definitely no longer cool to be going shopping with, and so he asked if he could go off on his own for a while.
Well, he is 11 now after all, and a very grown up one at that, so we took a deep breath and said yes. As always, he wasn't wearing a watch and had left his phone at home, so Nicky lent him hers, and we watched him saunter off.
Nicky made a beeline for the Radley store as she had her eye on a bag that she'd seen in their on line sale. It wasn't on display, but this didn't deter her, and after she'd sent the shop staff off to hunt, a transaction was successfully completed.
We decided to enjoy our grown up time by retiring to Costa for a coffee, but whilst we were there, and still half an hour before our appointed meeting up time, a text came through from Jake to say that he couldn't find anything that he wanted and that he was bored!
Judging by his mood when he came and found us, he clearly wasn't up for a shop at that point. So after a look in a couple of other places we went for tea at Ponti's, and true to form, a bit of food served to pick up his mood.
After a feed, he got stuck into a bit of shopping (proving that he is Nicky's son after all) and as a further indication of growing up, his birthday money purchases for today were a t-shirt, some headphones, and a pair of sunglasses.
Spending his own money on something other than computer games and sweets - times they are a changing.
