OF course I was a Tiger Mum. Just like David Cameron now wants us all to be, I was ambitious, pushy, strict, demanding and determined that my children would be top achievers… until they were born.

Then all my great theories of child-rearing crumbled into dust when faced with the reality of two equally determined small boys who hadn’t read the parenting manuals. So no, they never got their Grade 8 violin – or even Grade 2, or did their Duke of Edinburgh Gold or mastered fluent Mandarin. Would they have been any happier if they had?

There’s a fine line between encouraging your children in their interests (football, football and football) and pushing them to do things to make you look good. Or forcing them to pursue endless activities just for the sake of their future CVs.

True, there are some things you have to nag about – toilet training, politeness, not driving a car when you’ve had ten pints of lager – but other stuff, however laudable, is often just not worth the misery.

It’ s worth remembering that we have some of the unhappiest teenagers in Europe. At one end of the scale you have teenagers with bucketsful of A*, endless awards, certificates and serious problems of self-esteem or anorexia. At the other, there are children starting school in nappies, not sure what a book is and clueless about a knife and fork.

Meanwhile most parents muddle along somewhere in the middle. Getting some things wrong but most things sort of right-ish. And somehow most children eventually turn into decent, happy and successful adults. Tiger mothers? No way. More like pussy cats – with just the hint of a claw when absolutely necessary.

AFTER six years marriage, Gary Lineker and Danielle Bux have divorced, politely and even affectionately, thanking each other for “many happy years together” and promising to be the best of friends. Apparently the reason for the breakup was that Danielle, 36, wanted children together and Lineker, 55, didn’t.

Understandable. But wouldn’t it have been better to sort that out before they got married rather than six precious child-bearing years down the line?

CHINESE children don’t have brothers or sisters. Instead they have robots. For more than 30 years China had a one-child policy – only recently relaxed – so there are an awful lot of children more likely to be lonely. But now they can have robots that can talk to them, play games and read bedtime stories. Problem solved? Maybe. Still sounds scary.

I enjoyed being an almost only child – my half sister was 15 years older than me and left home before I started school. Our house was large and empty and quiet – no one wrecked my toys or ripped my books and I always got the last chocolate and grown up conversation.

But I spent holidays with my tribe of cousins. Then plenty of my school friends had lots of brothers and sisters which gave me a taste of family life and the rough and ready rules that spilled over into the playground.

But now in China where every child is solitary, childhood has changed. Children don’t get that same chance for companionship, social survival skills and family ties, not even other people’s. They are all little emperors which can’t make life easy.

We’re going the same way. Although the very rich, and recent immigrants are having lots of children, the average British family is shrinking. With so many single parents, that’s often a whole raft of relations lost to them too.

Anyway, it was younger grand-daughter’s first birthday tea-party on Sunday, a family do with grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. Chaos. Babies crawled through the wrapping paper, toddlers rampaged, older children bossed everyone about.

Every present seemed to be a noisy toy – which you could hardly hear over all the squealing and shouting. Wonderful.

For with a big sister and all those cousins, at least the birthday girl will never need a robot for company.

SO Rupert Murdoch, 84, is marrying Jerry Hall, 59. Their announcement – in Murdoch-owned Times of course – names them solely in relation to their children, which was quite sweet. But also shows their age. You start off being answerable to your parents – but by the time your children are grown up you find the tables have turned and they’re the ones in charge.

So it must have been a huge relief for Scottish Secretary David Mundell, who came out as gay this week, to read a Twitter post from his elder son, Oliver: "I admire Dad today as much as I did yesterday. A brave decision and the right one.”

Being loving and supportive at tricky times isn’t just the prerogative of parents.

MONTHS, almost years, after she started to sort things out, daughter-in –law is still getting nowhere with HMRC – other than the occasional unpleasant threat. Meanwhile, National Savings made a mess of my attempts to buy more premium bonds.

I wrote and complained. The very next day a pleasant lady rang up and explained that something had gone wrong in their computer system but it had been solved and everything was now sorted and they were very sorry and was there anything else they could help me with?

Well yes – they could pop over to HMRC and give them some much needed lessons in customer service. Wouldn’t that be wonderful…