We were walking through the park, coming home from H’s swimming lesson. It’s a short walk from home and it’s also a great short cut from the new leisure centre. We got to the main road, where we were all saying our goodbyes, when suddenly six ducks flew over our head, quacking loudly. We all looked up to admire them, when all of a sudden H burst into tears.

One of the bloody ducks had only gone and pooed on her head. Seriously!

Poor H! She didn’t have a clue what was going on (as let’s face it, you don’t really know unless there’s someone there to tell you) and fortunately I had some wipes with me in the swimming bag, so I was able to do a very basic clean up. Oh god, it STANK. It was horrid.

I let her know that actually, that happening meant she was VERY lucky. Being four and of a very sensible nature, H responded “what’s lucky about a duck doing a poo on your head?” and that’s a fair point.

So I put it out to my Facebook friends, what on earth do you do? We came up with two fantastic ideas, so thank you to Lianna and Jacques. Firstly, Shaun found two 20p pieces and put them in H’s reading book for school. She felt pretty lucky getting some money in there, and it was duly placed in her money box. (she did want to take it into school to show everyone, but was dissuaded)

I printed a duck picture onto some paper and got a workmate to write a letter saying ‘sorry’. Then I just had to get home from work on time and post the letter through the door as I left for pickup – all easy. H got home first and found the ‘piece of paper’ – managed to read what the duck had said and thinks it’s the best thing ever.

Me? I think it’s great she’s no longer angry at ducks!

Swimming night is hairwash night, and we’ve been using Johnson’s Baby Easy Rinse No Tears Shampoo – see, it may be for baby but when you’re four and you want a bit more control then the pump is great for doing it all yourself. Oh, it’s also good when you’re getting over the fear of showers. We’ve been using it a lot, and the no tears formula means she can’t pretend it hurts when it gets into her eyes. It also smells quite pleasant afterwards too, which is an enormous improvement on duck poo!

As an added distraction, we were also sent a limited edition Matey Bath Book – being a child of the seventies I still have my original Matey badge collection somewhere (I seem to remember them being of whales?) and now H bathes in the stuff. The book has a little more than previous bath books we’ve owned, and I’m finding good with her learning to read too – a clear font she can work out the words with. Add to that each page has something each character does with bubbles, so she has to re-enact each rhyme, of course.

It’s like the duck never pooed on her head really. I think we’ll keep it that way…

We were sent the book and shampoo for the purpose of review and fabulous from distraction relating to duck poo. All opinions are our own and honest.