“Ihope you’re not going to do something like this,” warns my son on his way to attend a surprise 18th birthday party courageously arranged by his friend’s mother. That tone squelches any desire I had to do something similar.

“Never thought of it,” I shrug with a nonchalance I don’t feel.

Today, after his French exam, my son’s high schooldays are over. Soon he will be university-bound.

The maternal health nurse did say to cherish the years that would pass “in a flash”. With three children under five, nothing happened in a flash except the perpetual dishevelment that tested my sense of order.