Who's The Daddy: Tips to getting your kids safely through university

If you’ve done your job right, once you’ve overloaded your car with all their stuff and driven to a strange new city, they’ll be off without a backwards glance - only contacting the mothership when they run out of money.

For many, it is a rude awakening that will do them the world of good.

Where once they moaned in that entitled way that they do when they’re bored of what’s for dinner; or their washed, dried and ironed clothes were left on their bed for them to sort and not put away in wardrobes and drawers by the magic housework fairy - now it’s all on them. All of it.

Daughter #2 began her second year at LIPA this week. She spent the summer at home and worked to earn money to help keep her going through the next academic year.

Where once she turned her nose up at the Hairy Bikers’ balti/korma/tikka masala recipes lovingly crafted by yours truly, in favour of Quorn nuggets warmed up in a jar of sweet and sour sauce, after a year of fending for herself she’s a lot less fussy.

The phrase “you’ve never had it so good” springs to mind. When you have to physically go to a supermarket, push a trolley around it, pay with your own money and then cart it all home again, and then cook it yourself, all of a sudden the lip curls and sighs about what was literally handed to you on a plate every evening feels a little bit petty.

Mums and dads of freshers, if you’re worried about what your kids are getting up to in their first week away, you’ve every right to be. Freshers’ Flu is a thing - other names for it are acute alcohol poisoning, severe exhaustion and strange localised itching.

One little parenting tip that I feel duty bound to pass on - after getting daughter #1 though uni with a first and her younger sister a third of her way through her course - is if you have to top up your kid’s student loan, then ping it to them on a Monday, never, never, never on a Friday.

With human nature being what it is, if a wodge of cash lands in an 18 year old’s account at the start of a weekend, most if not all of it will be up the wall by Saturday morning and they’ll be on to you for more before Monday. They can resist everything - except temptation. Thank me later.