If you read his diary regularly, you might think it I am trying to portray a life, all sweetness and light. I know I moan a lot about how awful the kids are and that they never sit down and do what I want, but outside of this general griping, the impression I try to portray is one of a chirpy, happy family, sitting down together eating a humble dinner of home cooked food. In reality this is more than a little untrue. Most of the time it's just chaos.

This is not to say the food isn't good or the kids don't like it, but they have to be in the mood. Quite a lot of the time, being little horrors, they just don't really want to sit down and eat dinner. There are many more interesting things to do than sit listening to me, asking them how their day at school was. Then of course there's Olias. Being only 9 months old, sitting for any period of time doing anything is tricky. He loves his food though, he really does, but has usually eaten his fill before I have managed to sit down and begin eating.

Then the moaning starts and Olias gets picked up and has to be held (or crawls off to throw things from the cupboards). Isis usually runs off at some point. Eve then starts saying "Can you come and play with me..." over and over again, sometimes grabbing my hand in a vain attempt to get me to follow.

Usually, before either Toni or I have managed to eat more than a few mouthfuls, the whole thing has descended into something very far removed from the happy family meal you see on the Oxo commercials.

I would still prefer this to the kids eating early and us having a late dinner when they are in bed, having to cook different meals, do two loads of washing up and all the other hassle. I'd also prefer this to sitting them in front of the TV while they eat, even if this would leave us free to eat in peace.

I live in the deluded hope that one day they'll thank me for trying - but I'm not so deluded as to think the ever will.