So I have just realised I was making my life difficult.

All the recipe following and food colouring. It seems that it was purely for my benefit not my kids. The other day I did probably what countless mothers over hundreds of years have done before childhood became a commercialised plastic electronic mess.

I, as usual, cooked my weekly budget meal. Dahl (lentil curry) with homemade chapatis. it costs about a pound in ingredients and feeds us all for lunch and dinner. It is also probably on the list of Jon, Arthur and Elliott’s favourite foods.

So I made the Dahl whilst the boys were asleep using my pressure cooker. Then I made the chapati dough after they had woken up. I gave Elliott and Arthur a ball of it each to play with. They happily made it into shapes and rolled it between their hands and squished it for ages. It was then that it dawned on me that they did not care one bit what colour it was and it didn’t need any salt in it as it was boring to eat anyway. They are way past the stage of eating everything they can get their hands on.

So there you go Mummies. Don’t bother with Play Dough. Just cook a curry once in a while and entertain your children at the same time.