Teenagers home alone: there's a smartphone for that

Usually my job involves shuffling around the house in my pyjamas talking to myself, interspersed with the odd burst of writing. Occasionally it involves getting dressed and leaving the house, and rarer than a blood moon eclipse, it requires a trip.

Like the one I am on now, complete with boarding card and borrowed shoes.

So what, as a single parent of young teenagers, do you do while away on a work trip? Remote parenting, that’s what. The trick is to make your presence felt, even from another time zone via a carefully co-ordinated series of veiled threats and shameless bribes. Digital media plays a vital part in remote parenting –you can’t very well do long distance harassment without the aid of a smartphone.