'You can't treat us like this. We're just kids'

IT IS time to return to work. It's hard to believe, but I am fairly relieved about this.

Hard to believe because my children are still on holiday, and who knows how they will entertain themselves.

But whatever they do will be more fun than having me at home. I would be bad-tempered while picking up their mess, moaning about wet towels left on the floor and unmade beds.

They are still small, but not too young to clean up after themselves. At the start of the holiday I made a bold written list of house rules - too short, considering the untidiness of our home - and stuck it on the cluttered fridge.

Everybody was excited about the prospect of looking after themselves, I thought.

The first day was a fabulous success, with me reading while everybody little bustled about. But that was it. It was the first and last day of helping themselves. The novelty wore off immediately.

I took over again. My pet hate - wet towels spread across bedroom floors - drove me increasingly mad.

Late one Sunday afternoon I had enough. Not entirely fairly. I was exhausted, and like my children when they are tired, I was irritable and unreasonable.

I had spent the previous evening with one of my best friends, chatting late into the night, and I was taking the after-effects out on the children .

My friend and I had a lovely time and drank delicious wine.

As the day wore on I became more and more aware of how much tidying up I was doing. In fact, I did little else. Then as the sun faded, and the children grumbled, my mood worsened. Not able to tolerate a bath-time squabble, I exploded. Nobody escaped my wrath. I had my children jumping around doing chores.

I shouted when they didn't listen. I stormed about following their progress.

Finally, when the house was in a respectable state, I lay down and saw the devastating effect my behaviour had had on my offspring.

One daughter, in tears, said: "You can't treat us like this. We're only children."

That made me feel bad. So now I bite my tongue and insist on some order, but mostly I've let my standards slip and treated my children (fairly) well ever since.