Going a bit ‘old school’ today and pulling this belated award from a parent I corrupted at school drop-off last week. Welcome to our fold, Sandra. Though, the following example of your work is more than fine start.

Almost every spawnling will forget something in the school bag at some stage during the year. Depending on where your Spawnling sits on the independence spectrum, you could take the item up to school during the day or deliver a healthy dose of “Suck it, princess”.

Sandra preferred to see the opportunity to show her kids who’s da boss.

After school had settled in, Sandra snuck into the bag area and placed the offending drink bottle in her son’s bag.

While her younger kindy son was convinced it was magic (and Sandra is now “The Most Powerful Wizard of All), the forgetful older year-2 son was not so convinced.

“Mum, I know it was you. But I didn’t see you. No-one did. How did you do it?”

And so came about the elaborate story of a chemical mishap spilling on to dear mum, giving her the ability to turn invisible.

Of course, Sandra expected her son to call BS. Instead there was quiet acceptance and no further discussion.

A week later, Sandra was approached by the year 2 teacher. Apparently, there was a HUGE improvement in his behaviour at school – attentive, engaged, and helping others. He was also showing more interest in the curriculum, asking when they would be moving on to Chemistry.

What makes this even better is that Sandra’s son shared the story with his classmates and they were now asking if they could set-up a science club during lunch breaks.

Normally, the teacher would not encourage ‘elaboration’ (read: LYING) to students, but in this case… Could Sandra please provide some “chemical research” to keep the kids going?

Well done Sandra! You’ve taken parenting to the next level.