But he was not prepared for the task of coping with 'difficult' anxious parents. The most taxing moments of his working life were to be spent dealing with 'worried mums'. He sighs as he tells of the mother who insisted on driving behind her son's coach to France to ensure that he arrived safely. The planned pirate's day on the beach ended up being confined to the school field - sea, sand and adventure confined to their imagination and many of its education aims undermined. Of course, it is normal for parents to be concerned about the well-being of their children.
Parental anxiety is nothing new.
A brief inspection of the pages of The Nursery World from the 1920's and 1930's shows that our grandparents were haunted by many of the doubts, worries and preoccupations that torment fathers and mothers today. Many begged an answer to what the publication's agony aunt called 'a problem as old as parenthood itself - that of how to get to obey us'. It might seem that not much has changed. But the superficial similarities betray some big differences, in the past, parental anxiety focused on the problems within the family. And of course, the older generation was often anxious about their children falling in with bad company and generally 'getting up to no good'.