And so, as my two fabulous sons head towards manhood (faster than I could ever have imagined), I wonder what advice I will give them when they marry or move in with the young lady of their choice?

Will it be ‘Don’t ever forget her birthday’? or maybe ‘Make sure you always buy an enormous Valentine’s Day card, to show her how much you love her’?

Perhaps I’ll veer toward the soppy and sentimental side with ‘Put little Post-It notes inside her shoes so she’ll find them when she’s getting dressed in the morning’ or ‘Hide the engagement ring inside a box of chocolates’ (I don’t think I would advise putting said blingy ring at the bottom of a glass of fizz, we don’t want my future daughters-in-law choking to death before they enjoy their trips up the aisle).

If my sons and their partners are blessed with the patter of tiny feet, I might recommend they take their fair share of nappy changing duties seriously, allowing Mum to put her feet up and rest. Or I could suggest they pencil in a ‘date night’ once a month while Grandma Fiona babysits and wonders how on earth she managed to have children in her late 30s, got them to fly the nest in time for her to have a bit of a life before she pops her clogs and THEN had to start all over again with the lullaby-singing, tepid bathing, tickling and bedtime story thing…

I might tell them how important it is that the lady in their life knows how much she is valued, how special she is and just how vital it is to keep the flame alive, the romance burning and those vital ‘just the two of us’ times special.

I could give them the age old nugget ‘Never let the sun go down on an argument’ or ‘Always kiss and make up before you go to sleep’ because things fester and can seem so much worse in the morning if at least one of you hasn’t tried to make amends over a squabble.

Or, I could give them the most valuable piece of advice ever passed down from mother to son…

Beside the loo, there is a funny brush thing and a bottle of cleaning fluid – use it!