Rachel spoke to Gail, the manager of the day care centre. Gail divulged that dad often returns to the centre on Wednesdays, after the end of their session, on flimsy pretexts. It was only the most recent of his clandestine visits, when he told them there was no food in the house, that came to light, but now we know he has a secret life.

Rachel remembers occasions on which dad has returned from day care and then announced that he is going for a walk 'around the block'. She'd always thought this was rather odd - why would he want to go out when he had just been out for the whole day. It seems that these 'walks' may have been the occasions of his secret returns to the day care centre. I can just imagine him getting to the gate of the centre and hesitating, wondering whether he should go in, and then going in anyway because he knows he really wants to, even though he knows he has no real reason to be there.

On the other hand, dad is clearly not enthusiastic about going to day care on Mondays. I tried to get him to tell me whether he wants to go or not, but he prevaricated like you wouldn't believe. If he doesn't go this coming week, he will lose the option. Gail has already decided to take him off the list of Monday visitors.

It seems Gail is of the opinion that mum and dad should be in a home. Our case manager thinks the same thing, as does Sophie, the ACAT team member. I shall probably talk about this in the next post.