We went on our first family holiday last weekend to the coast of the Baltic Sea. Only two nights away and a short three hour drive from home we thought this a safe trial run before we undertake anything more daring. And, having been seduced into buying a pram with all terrain suspension and incline safety belts, we were keen to test its full capability – if the family in the twin brochure could push it on the beach, why couldn’t we?

Lovely as it was to be by the sea, we quickly realised that pushing a twin pram on sand is not easy. Life is not a brochure, it seems. All the while the babies slept soundly, lulled by the sounds of the waves, but a few slow steps later we looked around us to see no other prams on the beach, not even single ones. That was our first lesson in babies and beaches.

When the rain and grey clouds finally broke on the Monday morning of our departure, we learnt our second lesson – babies, sun and sand are an even trickier proposition. Beaches offer little shade, no matter how you position your parasol or strandkorb (for those of you in the know) and even if you do find a small spot you cannot lie your baby on a matt on the sand, unlike in a park, as sand will blow in their little eyes. Half an hour in we packed our bags, again having looked around to see no children as young as ours, to then sit relieved in the cool of the car, steering ourselves homewards.

So that was our adventure. To have our twins lovingly admired by every middle aged lady on the beach was a treat. To be somewhere different was even more wonderful. Our babies returned sandfree and we rather pleased with ourselves, despite the quickfire lesson in parenthood.