MY little boy is a right old hoot these days. I swear he has developed his mum’s sense of humour, and by that I mean he tends to crack up at the stupidest things and laugh at himself a lot. The latest one is his hilarious game of hide and seek.

The funny bit is that he doesn’t appear to grasp either the ‘hide’ nor ‘seek’ concept. No matter how many times we say he has got to hide from us, he still thinks that putting his hands over his own eyes so he can’t see us, will suffice.

Ben is often stood in the middle of the lounge for all to see hands slapped onto his face, before whipping them off and shouting ‘boo’ or even better ‘Here I am’ – like we didn’t know.

Of course we do the obligatory jumping in surprise and the ‘Oh there he is’, in a shocked manner, but I wonder how damaging that will be long term. If we encourage this abandonment of traditional rules I can see him in the playground on his own muttering the word boo and wondering why no one will play with him.

Equally he doesn’t get staying put when he is put in a suitably hidden position. He thinks we are punishing him some way by making him stand behind a curtain or a bit of furniture. When we say ‘I wonder where Ben is?’ the daft child leaps out with another ‘boo’. How he will get on learning maths and English is beyond me when the basic rules of hide and seek elude him.

He is also mad keen on tickling. Ben prefers to be the tickler rather than the ticklee, which can be quite wearing having to fake laugh for 20 minutes solid until he gets bored with it.

It usually ends up with us on a heap in the floor with Ben trying to pull up my top to get my tummy or shoes to get to my feet (brave child). This is fine in the privacy of you own home, but when you are wandering around Tescos and your child keeps whipping off your top in the fresh fruit aisle, eyebrows are raised I can assure you.

I have visions of being tannoyed, with a member of staff politely asking the woman with a small child to stop flashing in the ready made pasta section. It keeps me awake at night I can tell you.