My son woke me up this Father’s Day with an unexpected poke in the back and an unexpected selection of gifts and a card he had made himself. It seems he had been squirrelling things away for me. When I opened the old shoe box wrapped with string I found an eclectic mix of things inside: a can of tonic water; a pound coin; a chocolate coin; a chewy sweet; a dark chocolate KitKat; and a bottle of Tia Maria, which his grandma won at the school fare yesterday.

The gifts made me smile but it was the card that made my heart melt. On it he had listed: ‘Things Ben loves’.

These include: ‘The colour blue; trainers; spending time with friends and family; love, life, freedom.’

How well he knows me, I thought. And how deeply he appears to think. What a gift it is to be really seen by those you love.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads, mums playing dad, and to all those remembering their dads today.