Equality is an issue that is often considered from a female perspective.

Years ago, when I first watched the film Made In Dagenham about the female workers of an Essex car plant in the 1960s, I was inspired by their determination and sense of injustice.

Times have moved on a lot since then and although there is still a gap in the gender pay scale, it is closing fast.

The traditional lines of gender roles are also becoming blurred.

More women are at work than ever before and the sight of the stay-at-home dad in the playground is a familiar one. Men can cook and look after children and women can put up shelves and mow a lawn.

Well, some women can. I will admit that my shelf-erecting days are eluding me and, now I come to think of it, Mr Rees is not the best on the culinary front.

It is in this spirit that I recently spent an evening at my eldest son’s Cub pack.

Bear Grylls, the intrepid explorer and all round nice guy, lover of life and outdoors adventure, is the Chief Scout. As role models go, it would be hard to find a better one for all children, not just boys. Here is a man who can climb Everest, trek across the Sahara and survive the ravages of the Arctic; famous for drinking his own urine to survive dehydration and certainly not averse to eating all manner of nasties. My own three boys are true fans.

We have learnt how to start a fire without matches and I’d be fairly confident we could survive a snow storm and escape from dense rainforest.

All skills acquired from a TV series hosted by Bear Grylls, are unlikely to be tested in the depths of Oxfordshire, I would concede.

While I can understand the obvious attraction of these dangerous and exciting escapades, I think it is also important to teach children more mundane and admittedly boring life skills. And so, much to my eldest son’s amusement I spent last Monday evening at Cubs, coaching 20 ten year-olds, not all boys I should add, how to iron a shirt, how to put on a duvet cover, how to sew on a shirt button and how to polish your shoes.

Realising that this may not be met with as much enthusiasm as the previous week’s activity of camp fire building, competition seemed to be the obvious way to inject some fun.

By the end of the evening, the record for the duvet was 17 seconds and the shirt was ironed to perfection inside of two minutes. Impressive, if I do say myself.

Button-sewing clearly required a little more work but the shoes would make an army major proud.

It may not be action adventure, but behind every successful explorer is someone at home, preparing the kit.

Clearly as long as it doesn’t involve buttons, the First Shiplake Cubs can now tick that box rather well.

I tried to contact Bear Grylls to tell him of our success but he has so far been unavailable for comment.

Next week I plan to go to Brownies, the girl equivalent of Cubs, where I will be leading a session on DIY flat pack furniture construction and general motor maintenance.

Perhaps that may be running before we can walk, maybe I should start with how to take the bins out.

n This week we have also welcomed our new after-school childminder – Adam, a 23-year-old, 6ft 8in rower who is aiming for the Rio Olympics and needs a liitle sideline to fund this.

He can keep my three under control and knock up a spaghetti bolognese like the best of them.

I came home from work last week to find a mini football tournament going on in the garden and fairy cakes baking in the oven. That has got to be a sight to make any mum happy.