It’s been a while since I had a candlelit soiree. There’s nothing better than a good homecooked meal with friends.

Food brings people together and puts a smile on their faces.

I planned a supper party last week, my debut since giving birth to Betsy.

It helps enormously when both parties can thoroughly understand the unfortunate timing babies have in regard to nappy changing. Our invited guests recently became new parents too. As we sat round our table, wine was flowing, candle flames sparkled in their holders, lights were dimmed, food was being thoroughly enjoyed; I even laid the table with proper cotton napkins. It was the perfect ambience for a a grown-up get together, until our babies wanted their respective parents’ attention. Suddenly the lights went back on and it became just like a toddler group.

So... there we were gathered around the table on a Saturday night, babies on laps singing “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands”.

I have tried to bring up my 19-year-old son to care about others – it’s a trait I deem important. He was a passenger in a friend’s car on Saturday and while heading up Botley Road towards Park End Street he heard a loud bang behind him. He immediately got out of the car and rushed to the aid of a young girl who had been knocked off her moped by a motorist. He called an ambulance and stayed with her until the emergency services attended.

I am very proud that my son isn’t someone who walks by a person in need but someone who does care enough to help, a value I respect so much in others.

I can’t remember the last time my husband and I had a day without the children, we even opted for a family honeymoon following our wedding last August so we decided that we would take two coinciding days off work to enjoy some child-free time together.

Things didn’t quite go to plan. Last Sunday night having prepared a comforting Tom Kerridge-inspired shoulder of lamb I did a fair bit of damage to a tooth on a crispy layer of boulangere potato.

Instead of dressing up for a day in the capital, like we’d planned, first thing Monday morning I was instead on the phone to my dentist begging for an emergency dental appointment which was granted. It was decided that we drop off Betsy with our childminder and steal away some time together ahead of the tooth doctor. It should have been a romantic couple of hours, living life on the edge – instead we spent the entire time immersed in a children’s clothes shop trying to make some important baby fashion decisions followed by the children’s section in a bookstore trying to make some equally important bedtime reading decisions (The Gruffalo vs Beauty and the Beast) before spoiling ourselves with a new casserole dish.

I suppose the overwhelming moral of this week’s story is that it is only when you have children you understand how much they change your life and fill every waking thought – nothing prepares you for it and there’s nothing to equal it.

I realise how incredibly fulfilled, happy and proud my children make me… every day.