Windermere is a hard no. It’s not personal – we have been before, and there is plenty for families to see and do, but not this time. The holiday crowds, narrow pavements and unrelenting traffic proved to be a bit much for me, let alone my seven-year-old daughter, Alice, who has Down syndrome. While it’s not the most restrictive of disabilities, it still needs to be managed carefully.
Instead, we head for nearby Coniston Water. This is the heart of Swallows and Amazons territory, and my wife, Jane, and I agree it will be just the thing to get our two kids off their electronic devices. Phones and iPads had been used to get us along the motorway that crawls past Manchester, but now they have to be wrenched from our children’s hands. There is a grudging acknowledgement from our 11-year-old son, Henry, that mountains and lakes might be almost as interesting as a screen; a model-railway enthusiast, he begins to contemplate how the green hillsides dotted with sheep and cows might be incorporated into his set.
