One of the most frustrating aspects of parenting is having to force your kids to do something they will undoubtedly enjoy. The effort required to get them out of the house for football practice, a museum visit or a swim at the beach can often outweigh any potential reward (a temporary reprieve from holiday boredom, for example).

Couples talk about love languages. Parents are more familiar with the multifarious languages of no. These range from blunt refusal through to nuclear meltdowns and very temporary and highly specific vision loss – the latter rendering essential objects such as clothes and shoes invisible, even within a high-contrast setting.

So much of parenting is about teaching our children to say yes. To vegetables. To swimming lessons. To situations that might – at first – edge them out of their comfort zone. Basically to say yes to whatever it is that we as parents have decided might be best for them.

There are, of course, perils with this approach. Our youngest came home from primary school a few weeks ago with a wounded hand after being told she had to complete 50 lengths of the monkey bars to be admitted to an exclusive “club”. She was not........

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