I was on my way out to work as they trudged back in, so I left their father to sort them out. They told him if the bus didn't arrive within 30 minutes of its allotted pick-up time, then they didn't have to go to school. Snowed under with work and appointments, he took them at their word and allowed them to stay home for the day.

I don't think they would have found their mother quite so easy to convince. I would have driven them to school – but then I tend to be the taskmaster in our house, especially where education is concerned.
The children know which parent is the soft option on whatever issue they are pursuing.

Our eldest is playing a canny game at the moment with lifts to see his girlfriend. My husband is more willing to play at taxi driver than I am and when our son, with no advance warning, asks for yet another lift into town, I simply point him in his father's direction.

It's the picking up at the end of the night that I find particularly onerous as I am usually winding down by then and ready for a cup of cocoa before bed.

But our son has hit on a very effective form of blackmail. – "Fine," he says, "if you can't give me a lift, I'll cycle." While it is a ten-minute drive in the car, his journey takes 45 minutes on a bike late at night on the back roads avoiding the traffic, and he knows I worry about his safety in the dark and will give in and turn out to pick him up.

Both Mum and Dad are now looking forward to him passing his driving test so we can close down the parental taxi service for a couple of years until the next child in line has us running around.