Last updated 02:27, Thursday, 03 April 2008

WHEN I was young I was a pretty good guitar player, was a natural on the keyboard, clarinet, flute and recorder, represented my school at a number of sports and through my running club qualified for the British cross country finals.

Or at least I would have liked to. Fortunately, I can live the dream through my daughters.

It’s gradually dawning on me that children are there to complete the picture – you can encourage them to do all the things you wanted to when you were younger but didn’t have chance to, or weren’t good enough to.

And then, as a parent, you can steal some of the credit for bringing into the world such talented young individuals. I’m like a coach, talent scout and father all rolled into one.

Except it isn’t really like that. If I’m honest the sense of achievement I’m sharing is nothing more than immense pride.

My girls are class acts on a number of instruments. ‘You’ve obviously got your musical talent from your dad’, I seem to recall mentioning once.

Absolute rubbish. I would have loved to have played an instrument but my feeble attempts at learning the guitar and keyboard hit a dead end when I realised I couldn’t multi task. How on earth do you use two hands at the same time? It’s like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time - try it, it’s not easy.

A lack of co-ordination was further hindered by a complete lack of knowledge of musical notes and terms.

In my music exam at school, aged 12, I distinctly remember answering that an allegro was ‘a car’. Parents aged over 30 will remember the 70s rust bucket which inspired that answer and helped me to earn 30 per cent.

While my younger daughter Erin excelled at last week’s Carlisle and District Music Festival, my eldest daughter Zoe will be running in this Saturday’s British cross country championships at Nottingham, wearing the colours of Cumbria and racing alongside the best under-13 girls in the whole of the UK.

It’s a tremendous achievement to even get that far. I don’t expect her to win, or even come close to the front runners, but I know exactly what she’s going through – I came 75th in the West Lancashire cross country finals when I was her age.

Be fair, there were 100 runners. Actually about 74 runners while the rest walked a bit and chatted with their mates.

But I have done two Great North Runs and three Cumbrian Runs so I know a bit about pain.

At the end of the day, though, my girls are accelerating at a far greater rate than either my wife or I did when we were young.

They’ve been county champions in gymnastics on top of all the other things I’ve mentioned, and I’m not going to apologise for going on about it. I’m not showing off, I’m just a proud dad.

But very soon their achievements will leave me stranded. They’ll realise I’m no help to them any longer and will seek professional advice.

Erin announced last night that 11 x 11 was 121. It was a warning shot. She knows full well that I’ll be lost when it comes to alegebra homework.