Let’s do this together

I’d like to introduce you to my new co-parent – he’s always there, but doesn’t get on my nerves, snore, hog the duvet or leave wet towels on the bathroom floor. His name is Famisafe – or as I sometimes call him, fanny safe.

Some of you may have noticed my daily struggle trying – and usually failing – to parent The Dark Lord. And sometimes I’ve felt like my control was slipping away. But not any more because I have downloaded the parental control app Famisafe across all our devices at home. And it’s a game changer.

Just yesterday morning it paid for itself many times over when my stroppy daughter refused to get out of bed to do her last day of half-term camp.

“But it’s the races and freezing cold picnic today,” I tried to jolly her along as she lay there, but she just grunted, put her earphones back in and went back to her laptop.

I calmly went downstairs, picked up my phone and clicked on the Famisafe app. I tapped “Block laptop screen” and waited for the wail of anger upstairs.

She harrumphed down for breakfast a few minutes later, scowling and calling me a control freak. But the normal 15 minutes of screaming scuffles over technology and name-calling are now a thing of the past. I just wish I’d met Fami sooner. ■ The saying “they don’t make them like that any more” was made for the late Duke of Edinburgh. He loved tradition, yet liked to break rules. He was a war hero yet didn’t want anyone to make a fuss.

All the beautiful old black and white photos of his life showed how he came from a different time, when duty and doing the right thing was more important than centering your own feelings with a particularly vigorous hot yoga session.

To me, he was my grandad and that lovestricken posh bloke in the 1945 film Brief Encounter all rolled into one.

But even though he was a man of his time, I believe the values he stood for – respect, courage, fortitude – are timeless.

■ Email me at siobhan.mcnally@mirror.co.uk or write to Community Corner, PO Box 791, Winchester SO23 3RP.