On Friday we headed over to the leisure centre in Abingdon to meet a friend for Creepy Crawlies. She’s a friend I made through the baby café at the children’s centre on Northcourt Road – I started going there when Noah was only a few weeks old, and being so close to our house, it became like a second home for a while.

Anyway, I digress. I’d not been to creepy crawlies before and when we walked down to the sports court at the bottom of the centre and I got a first glimpse of the huge array of toys, I was amazed. It was like something out of the film Big with Tom Hanks. A wonderland for our little half pints.

You could tell I was a first timer as I failed to line my buggy up against the wall in a Tetris like fashion, as well as the big soft play faux pas, not removing shoes immediately on arrival.

Noah was a little bit out of sorts and quite clingy; still not himself after the swine flu. I think he was also a little overwhelmed by the huge choice of footballs alone, never mind the multiple ride ons (at least 20 if not more), the playhouses, soft blocks, bouncy castle, hula hoops and so on. We'll be going back for sure though, when he's back to his old self, he'll absolutely love it.

As all parents will know, when you have children, you become obsessed with recording every moment, milestone and outing on camera. These days so many of us have state of the art digital cameras, lenses we’re not sure what to do with, and cases that rival our change bags in size.

However, at these type of play centres and activity sessions, getting a camera out is an absolute no no. It’s a real shame. The swimming pool, OMG you’d pretty much be escorted off the premises if you dared to venture out of your changing cubicle with your flashy Lumix.

So what do we do? Covertly take pictures from behind our snoods? (BTW I said they would be back in fashion last Christmas, just call me Gok). I actually went and asked the lady what the score was on taking pictures and she was really nice – and reasonable.

She said if I waited until it was a bit quieter and made sure no one else was in my snap, and I was über discreet then it would be ok. But as we all know, keeping an eye on the little ones as they stagger from my first kitchen to a Little Tikes car is a full time job, let alone trying to get nice pics of them from within your coat pocket.

Are we destined to have little if any photographic memories of our children enjoying themselves unless they are within our own four walls? As I’ve been writing this I’ve been wondering if there is an answer, and I’m yet to come up with anything of any value.

Would be really interested in the thoughts of other parents. Is there any way around it, or is it just a fact of life?