Going away for a day and leaving your children with somebody else, even their Daddy, is a bit like leaving your class with a supply teacher.

As well as planning your own day, you also have to prepare for theirs.

And when you get home you not only have to recover from your own day but also sort out your house or your classroom after theirs.

You are so grateful to the supply teacher for enabling you to leave for a day and focus on something to develop you as a person or a parent or a teacher but has it really been worth it when you return?

David is actually a very hands on Dad so there is not that much I had to do to pepare for the day. I put out a selection of snacks and highlighted the foods needed for lunch and dinner. I put out the babies’ clothes for the day and their pyjamas for night, just in case I did not make it home. I made sure that the change bag was packed with the necessaries and that both babies had coats and shoes.

On first glance on arriving home they had all had a good day and as the cleaner had been in the house it was really not looking too shabby.

But on closer inspection this morning I have had to do a lot of rearranging and sorting. And there is still much more to do.

I mean, who thinks that the best place for a drum is in the ball pool?

I like to keep all of Esther and William’s toys organised into categorised boxes and I do get a bit fed up when they get mixed up as it makes it harder for me when we try to use the boxes another day.

I may be untidy but I am so in an organised way. I like to know where eveything is. I like to be prepared.

So after an exhausting day at The Baby Show I am back on baby duty with a poorly husband and a snotty son.

Has the break away done me good? Or made being at home even harder?

I missed my children dearly and I am glad to be back with them today but I just wish that for one day we could all be well and all be happy at the same time and do something together as a family.

Instead my Saturday feels like a Monday morning, my house like a dishevelled classrom, after a Friday, with a supply.