Myleene’s extreme parenting trend is one I can embrace

“I blindfold my kids and get them on the floor,” Myleene Klass told BBC Radio Wales on Sunday. Well, every mother has taken drastic measures to claw back a bit of “me time”. Only it turns out this is for the “monthly family home fire drill” the radio presenter insists on doing with her brood.

The 44-year-old has been raising awareness about issues of home security to promote her new book, They Don’t Teach This At School: Essential Knowledge to Tackle Everyday Challenges for parents and children. A quick flick has already taught me “how to avoid getting electrocuted”, “how to treat a jellyfish sting” and

“when meat is safe to eat”, but the drill is one of the best takeaways. Because we’re not big on child safety and drills in this country. And we should be.

In the US, where my daughter was born, I was convinced to burn any foodstuff containing nuts and stick childproof covers in every socket. Which turned out to be adultproof into the bargain, hence only three functioning sockets in the house, 10 years on.

I learned how to do CPR on a Chucky-faced doll, and home earthquake drills – “drop, cover and hold on!” – which largely involved cowering under the kitchen table, and clinging to one leg until it was pretend safe to come out. My daughter always enjoyed these, not least because they would lead to the discovery of a missing piece of Lego Castle we’d been trying to find for ages. And, of course, “shooter drills” were, tragically, a must both at home and school. Fire drills, however, are not something I’ve thought of doing – until now.

We like to laugh at “neurotic” Americans who see danger everywhere, yet every day the news confirms that it is. And while we may be powerless in some circumstances, there are others in which basic bits of knowledge could make all the difference. So now I will do the family fire drills. Perhaps I’ll even blindfold my daughter tonight, get her down on the floor, and before we both crawl through to the designated exit, sneak in a few life-saving seconds of time to myself.