PARENTS are okay, OK? Just ask singer Sam Smith. The 23-year-old Grammy award winner has been taking time off touring while he had surgery on his vocal cords and said it was the best thing that ever happened to him – because he discovered that he really liked spending time with his parents.

So much so, that he’s already planning an extended break to be with them at home later in the year.

In an interview with Magic radio station he said he doesn’t want to moan about being famous, “But some things are taken away from you.

So it was beautiful for me to just be with my mum and my dad and my sisters and remember how to laugh and chat about them," he says.

Families keep you normal. Parents keep you grounded.

Sisters will always think of you as a snotty six-year-old, or remember your teenage embarrassments.

You can’t pretend to be anything other than you.

As a parent, when you’ve battled through the hell that is much of their adolescence, there’s that marvellous moment when you discover that your children have turned into adults that you love spending time with. You have, after all, quite a lot in common.

So isn’t it great to have a son saying the same thing from the other view point? That he wants to be with his parents not out of duty or even love but because he actually likes them as people.

If you currently have door-slamming, eye-rolling, hair-tossing teenagers, who can hardly bear to be in the same room as you, I’d hang on to that thought.

Just a few more years to get through…

TEA and biscuits, those mainstays of female confidences, are on the way out.

Well of course.

Why mess around with tea when you can pour a glass of wine instead?

DAVID Beckham always strikes me as a decent dad but he still has me baffled.

He now apparently has 40 different tattoos, often featuring his family. “They remind me of my children,” he says.

Maybe. But if you’re likely to forget your children unless you have something inked upon your body, then it doesn’t say much for family ties.

The Northern Echo: David Beckham wearing H&M Bodywear swimshorts, £19.99

WANT something different to do with your children these holidays? Then how about talking to them? Maybe a more radical idea than it sounds – because many parents don’t.

Too many parents are more interested than scrolling through their phones than talking to their children, says a new study. Smartphones are addictive and children are suffering. We’ve all seen parents perpetually on their phones while toddlers fail to get their attention. We’ve seen families out for a meal, each of them engrossed in their own phone or iPad

No wonder many children are starting school not knowing nursery rhymes, with the vocabulary of a toddler, almost unable to talk, listen or engage with people – because their parents have never talked to them. Then parents blame the schools for not doing more.

Tristram Hunt, shadow education secretary is having none of that. He’s in no doubt where the blame lies. “It’s not a question of money,’” he said this week. “every parent can afford to talk to their child. This about parents, not schools. Parents have to take responsibility.”

Children who start school a long way behind their peers almost never catch up. At five years old they’re pretty much doomed. Want to stop that happening to your children? Then put down that phone and talk to them.

The Northern Echo: Lorra, lorra laughs, Cilla Black with her Top ITV Personality Award presented at the 1997 British Comedy Awards

EVER since the news came of the death of Cilla Black I can’t stop singing the songs she made famous. Anyone Who Had a Heart, Step Inside Love, You’re My World, Alfie.

I guess all over the country – and in other parts of the world – thousands of other people are doing the same.

And however off-key the singing, it’s not a bad tribute, is it?

THERE are some glorious gardens open to the public this summer, but some of the best shows of flowers have been utterly unexpected – like the tiny pub garden of the Strathmore Arms, in Holwick up in Teesdale, not ideal growing conditions right under the shadow of the Pennines but still full of interest – right down to pots of pinks in the middle of the outside tables.

Then there’s the riot of wild flowers on the West Auckland bypass. Wonderfully colourful. Almost makes going to Sainsbury’s a pleasure…

IT was generous and decent of Prince Andrew to apparently continue supporting his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson and their daughters long after the marriage was over. Whatever his faults, he’s clearly a kind man.

But considering then none of them seems ever to have held down a proper job, might it have been ever kinder to be less generous and encourage them to be independent?