As a journalist, I am lucky to be in a position to see a job through from beginning to end; and recently I have been at both extremes of the production process.

As you read this column, next week's paper is sitting in front of me – lots of pages, most of them blank and with content for many of them yet to happen.

But for the past few weeks I've been at the opposite end of the Diss Express' journey; delivering the newspaper through letter boxes in several parts of town.

My eldest son has just got himself a paper round. I was warned by friends it would be as much my round as his. And so it has proved.

I have been awake every morning at 6am. At first it was hands-on, helping him settle in and make sure he knew where he was going.

Then it was just to give him a hand on the heavier days of the week. Last week it was down to a case of checking he had not slept through his alarm and by this week, my sleep pattern had almost returned to normal as he confidently went about his first 'job'.

Tuesday brought an early-morning wake-up call with a request for a lift because his bike had got a puncture.

But through it all it has been a real sense of pride to see my son start his own voyage of discovery ahead of life in the real world.

He now knows all about getting up early to start work, making his own breakfast, the responsibility his job brings, the need to be sensible and 'grown-up' when he's out and about on his own and, refreshingly, a real sense of the value of money.

He's volunteered to save most of his wages and now spends his earnings for his Saturday trip to the Chip Van in Diss Market Place.

An added bonus has come with my youngest son now offering to earn his own wages by helping wash the car and cutting the lawn.

All we need to sort out now is their homework...