You can ruin someone’s day in a matter of seconds. Yesterday I took my one-year-old to have his vaccinations. I had my four-year-old with me too who was very sweet when her baby brother was bawling his eyes out at the shock of having been stung by a needle three times — she did her ‘crab dance’ and fetched his Peter Rabbit to make him feel better.

Afterwards, when we got out to the car, I popped my daughter in first and buckled her in because she has trouble staying still, which worries me in a car park. (No matter how many times I tell her to stay close and hold onto her brother’s pram, she always strays a little.)

When I went around the other side to pop my baby in, I realised the car next to that side was parked so close that there was no way I could get bub into the car that way.

Okay, I thought, I’m going to have to climb into my daughter’s side and get him in that way.

Just as I went around that side and opened the door, I saw a car waiting to get into the spot on my daughter’s side.

I gave a wave and mouthed ‘sorry’ as in ‘sorry, just gonna be a minute’.

Then I crawled past my daughter with baby in my arms, got him into his seat and with difficultly buckled him in and secured the strap on the door side that was fricken hard for me to do from that angle.

I got out, closed the door, gave the woman another apologetic wave before loading the boot with the pram and all manner of other things that one must take along for a baby.