“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, and keep your promises whether it’s in your favour to do so or not.” One mum looks back on how she raised her three sons.

My husband is a primary-school teacher who uses a piano accordion (“A creature lives and breathes in a big grey box, can you guess what it is?”) and three monkeys to capture his students’ attention. Even the rough-and-tumble Year 6 boys aren’t ashamed to stop him in the playground and ask what Nerk, Nerkette and Cousin Nokki have been up to on the weekend.