How to figure out life, kids

I am not proud to admit this, but it took me three attempts to get my O level maths, back in 1986. Even then, I just about scraped a C.

To this day, I remember that feeling of nausea, walking into the exam hall, sitting down and turning over the paper.

I was forced to revisit that trauma recently, when my son Zac asked me for help with his fractions homework.

My husband is the maths guru in our family but he was working away. So here I was, on the spot, with a nineyear-old about to judge me.

All I can say is, thank the Lord for the internet. To save face, I told him: “You can’t just keep asking me questions, you have to find solutions to these problems by yourself.

“That’s what life is all about, being inquisitive and overcoming obstacles. Go online, type in your problem and see what comes up.”

So we did, and up came the videos, diagrams and explanations.

He quickly understood what to do and whizzed through his homework without asking me again.

“Now,” I asked him, “What did you learn?”

He looked at me with a wry smile and said: “Never to ask you a maths question because the internet will be more helpful.”

“Exactly,” I told him, feeling a bit smug that I’d turned my ignorance into a life hack he won’t forget.

Being a maths duffer needn’t stop you being a clever clogs.

HURT