I’m the proud father of a 2-and-a-half year old: Little M. Over the past few months, along with a number of other things, her imagination has blossomed.She used to need someone else to play with, but now, she’s quite happy to play by herself. Being our first-born, Little M has an abundance of toys to play with. Her favourite ‘traditional’ toy is a Disney Princesses castle, but she’s been watching her mum and I. You see, like most parents these days, we have a mobile phone each, and we use them for everything: music, Facebook, Twitter, web, messaging and wait, I’ve missed something. Oh, yes: making calls.

I’m quite protective of my phone (iPhone 5S, if you’re wondering), so Little M doesn’t usually get the chance to play with mine, but she does get to play with Little J’s. She makes (pretend) calls to relatives across the globe, (pretend) posts on Facebook and sends (pretend) text messages. However, on the occasions when Little J’s phone is not available, she’ll find a substitute. She has a couple of toy phones, but she’ll use whatever’s to hand.

Anything can be a phone: a real phone, a toy phone, a pack of cards, a shoe, a hairbrush, or even just your hand. Her reception relies on only one thing, and it’s not signal strength or battery life. It’s her imagination. As a parent, its my job to feed her imagination, and it’s a lot of fun!