Lindsay Woods: Cue throat clearing. 'Mum, what’s a cervix?'

It happened over a bowl of Cheerios. As most things generally do. My daughter saves her best work for when we all sit down to eat. She is six-and-a-half. The half is important.

As I packed the lunches, my back turned to both her and my son, I heard it. That throat-clearing noise that she does when she is about to unleash some verbal diatribe of sorts. It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up and invariably, causes my shoulders to tense.