Should I have tried to take my children to the Commonwealth Games?

I confess I made no effort to obtain tickets. If my offspring were older, it would have been a different story, but even for my oldest girl - who is five-and-a-half - I wasn't convinced it would be terribly interesting.

Now, however, I am surrounded by parents who have taken young kids. They have posted their photographs on Facebook holding flags in front of venues, they are on my commuter train with their cuddly Clydes, they are in my office talking about watching some form of sport that until now has held little interest for them.

So I am experiencing pangs of guilt and pangs of jealousy and am quite unable to separate the two.

The cynical side of me thinks these people who "took their children" were really taking themselves, and dressing it up as some kind of family outing because it sounded less selfish that way.

Even those with older primary-school children described them growing bored and wriggling in their seats. High-fiving giant hands seems to have been the highlight of their day and I kind of wish giant hands were running around the playing fields of Scotland during the course of July.

Nevertheless, should these youngsters be asked what they did with their summer holidays on the first day of the new school term, they will be able to say they went to the Commonwealth Games. When they are older they will always know they were there at Glasgow 2014.

Those strike me as good things. No doubt some athlete of the future will attribute their enthusiasm for sport to the day they sat on their dad's knee at the Emirates Arena.

My daughter, meanwhile, may or may not remember by the end of next week that we held our own Commonwealth Games in the back garden including an obstacle race completed by three generations of the family. The DIY medals and the DIY bunting will soon be in the bin and the sweets awarded on the winner's podium have long been eaten.

I did visit my local council office and ask if their was anything Games-related going on in my sizeable town. The answer? "Nothing".

Now I don't live close to Glasgow, and I know there are a number of different projects aiming to create a lasting health legacy from the Games.

My hunch is that, a bit like the opening ceremony, some parts of this drive are brilliant and inspiring and others are weaker and limited. Personally I would have liked to see something on the scale of the Unicef donation appeal, urging people to make their own pledge to achieve a lifestyle change or a fitness goal for the Commonwealth Games - be that climbing a munro, doing a bit more exercise or giving up biscuits with tea.

Many schools did an excellent job of bringing the Games to life for pupils before the end of term. Could a few extra Clyde costumes and a few more giant hands have roamed the nation and kept that going, I wonder? Could there have been more ways to participate without buying a ticket? These are open-ended questions, like the one I started with. Should I have taken my children? You tell me.