Families up and down the country are getting used to their offspring being back in the classroom. Although my kids are not so little anymore, I can remember struggling to get used to a routine. Apart from washing and getting uniforms dry, countless lunch boxes, travelling to and from school and that’s if you can actually get the little darlings out of bed! I remember breathing a sigh of relief when the school holidays began and the thought of morning lie ins – aww bliss. Mind you, being thankful when the holidays ended and they went back!

I struggled at school, finding I wasn’t very academic, and also realising I wasn’t one of the cool kids. Actually, never feeling comfortable or confident was a problem for me, I went through the years with one best friend and with both of us trying to stay in the shadows.

Are people born cool, how do you learn to be cool, can you fake it, I always wanted to be one of the trendsetting kids at school and longed to belong. I grew up loving and laughing at the Fonz, but it was only watching re-runs when I was older that I came to realise how hard he actually worked at being cool.

When I googled how to ‘be cool in school’, a whole list of so-called ‘helpful’ advice presented itself, amongst these were: make friends with popular people, join clubs, go to parties, dress the right way – well how easy that all looks eh?

I’m sure we’ve all heard of Andy, Mike & Tim (3 dads walking) and have had our hearts go out to them for their devastation and loss upon losing their beloved daughters who ended their own lives and the 3 dads enduring efforts to bring suicide awareness to families. They have been campaigning for suicide prevention to become mandatory lessons in schools.

My thoughts to you all, to be aware of what content your children are being subjected to on social media sites, to be mindful of their mental health, we all know hormones surging through young bodies can cause so many stresses and problems.

Let’s all get behind the 3 dads.