‘Next stop: nervous breakdown, as I try to herd my grandchildren on a train’

Political hack Kevin Maguire steps away from the day job at Parliament and reveals another side to him as Granda Kev. This week, he braves a busy London railway station with his two young grandchildren, and serious confusion kicks in

Taking a pair of lively young grandkids on to a train with their scooters and a pushchair requires nerves of steel and logistical planning of a relocating army.

The first were frayed, the second went AWOL, as a woman would testify after our troupe stayed in the lift when she stood aside at London’s Highbury and Islington station.

Descending with Little L and Canny C to the wrong platform as seconds ticked by before the driver shut the doors wasn’t a finest call.

The resurrection felt in slow motion as Little L correctly, if annoyingly, announced: “I said it wasn’t this one.” I pretended not to hear. It’s his local station, not mine. He knows it much better. Little L must have been up and down more often than Keir Starmer at PMQs.

I’ve used H&I a fair bit and blame a confusing indicator board but next time shall listen as well as hear.

Fortunately, the correct lift was waiting and the train too, yet cutting it tight adds to the nervousness of shepherding walking kids while pushing a buggy with a couple of scooters over the handles.

Both children are reasonably well behaved and obeyed pleas to hold a side each, and a train motionless in the station is less menacing than a 4ft drop to the tracks. Little L, aged four, is able to carefully step on and off the train, minding the gap as I fuss around him.

Canny C, two, requires a helping hand and holds hers out for granda. For them, it’s wonderfully exciting. For adults, it’s edgy.

Nervous exhaustion was banished with a kip after a walk, playing with toys and a fish finger lunch at mine. Sticking them under a blanket to watch a kiddies’ entertainer singing silly songs on TV, while yours truly slept for an hour on the other sofa, was a perfect day for all of us.

Recharging the batteries to be on high alert for the return journey, I called it. Mercifully, the lift lottery was limited to a single choice.