I'm not sure how it happened, because I've always prided myself on being a liberated kind of woman, but for some reason the children in our family seem to have settled into 'traditional' roles.
Last night my son was bemoaning the fact that there weren't any clean spoons in the drawer. 'Look in the dishwasher,' I told him. 'The dishwasher,' he repeated, like I'd suggested he look in the bin. 'Yes, the dishwasher,' I replied. 'You just open the door and empty it.' 'That's your job,' he replied, scarpering upstairs to resume playing on XBox Live before I had a chance to respond.
Meanwhile 13-year-old Harriet will happily help cook dinner, lay the table, clear the table, load the dishwasher and/or wash up if necessary without so much as a peep.
Clearly something's gone wrong somewhere.