The past was an age of stuff-ups and embarrassments. We were happier then

June 12, 2026 — 11:00am

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There are many things the digital age has delivered that make life better – my vote is for livestreams of baby giraffes taking their first steps – but there is a cultural shift due to modern technology that I am sure will send us all to the funny farm. We expect to never get it wrong.

This epiphany arrived for me last week when one of my kids was unsure about whether it was a PE uniform day at school. There was quite the tizz at my house, text messages to and fro, cross-checking of data on the school’s Compass app in between anguished putting on and taking off of sneakers. I remembered the time I went to school in civvies, thinking it was magical non-uniform day, when I could finally show the world that I had specialised interests and wear my ripped Meanies T-shirt and self-customised Converses. It wasn’t. I did feel embarrassed but I did not die.

Then there was the time I left my French horn at home on the day the school band was due to play at assembly (confession: the French horn is one instrument you can stuff your hand right into so no one actually hears you play, and my entire French horn........

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