I’m seeing kids flying kites again recently – maybe screens haven’t ruined childhood after all

Spotting some kids enjoying this ancient wind-based pastime almost made me as high as a kite (Picture: Getty Images)

Up until very recently, I couldn’t have told you the last time I saw a kite.

On the front of a twee children’s birthday card, perhaps. Maybe on the cover of an old Enid Blyton novel spotted through the window of an Oxfam bookshop. Or being enthusiastically recommended on TV by the immortal Cockney barrow boy Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.

But an actual kite, attached to an actual child and flying in an actual park? Not a clue.

Then, the other day, I noticed one. I should probably clarify that I don’t regularly hang around parks monitoring the recreational habits of local children. The kite caught my eye. They’ve the ability to do that, what with them being multicoloured and flapping about in your peripheral vision like they do.

It made me smile slightly m...