The Acorn Nursery School is one of my favourite places in the world. All of my children and most of Karen’s were lucky enough to go there, and we couldn’t have been happier to get an invitation to go back to do a talk.

Karen’s son Cian and Georgia’s son Tommy were best friends and partners in crime at the Acorn. Here they are, looking deceptively angelic, with their teacher Natalie. Photo by Kim Hooper.

Unlike many schools, the Acorn welcomes parents with open arms and encourages them to come inside as often as possible. The first session is always news and singing, and once you get over our embarrassment about joining in, it is the best possible start to the day. I had almost forgotten how much I missed those Acorn mornings when my children were small.

Collecting time was fun too. At the school gate, as parents swapped all sorts of stories – like how to get our children out of the door on time in the morning, how to encourage them to eat vegetables, and what to do on the days when they were tired and grumpy – all sorts of great ideas emerged, and you can find many of them in our first book.

In March we were welcomed back by the lovely joint headmistresses Frances George and Hilary Bierman plus a crowd of chatty and enthusiastic parents. In a very lively session, we talked them through the Seven Parent skills that feature in both books. At the end, one mother said one of the nicest things I’ve ever heard after one of our talks, “I’ve tried all sorts of parent classes and usually I just sit there feeling guilty about all the things I am doing wrong. But I feel great! You’ve just shown me all sorts of things I’m doing right.”

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David Aldred (deputy head pastoral), Karen, Bill Ibbetson-Price (headmaster), Georgia, Jenny Robbins (head of the Friends of Winterfold)

Bill Ibbetson-Price, the headmaster of Winterfold school is an exceptionally nice man and full of energy and enthusiasm, (ex-army and a former county Rugby player, he was known as Action Man at his last school.) Before the talk, he kindly invited us to a delicious dinner with his wife Linda, two deputy head teachers and Jenny Robbins, the head of the parents association.

Karen and Georgia with parents from Winterfold House School

Built round a fine old Georgian house, with views of the Malvern hills, Winterfold has evolved from an all-boys boarding school, to a flourishing day-school for boys and girls, plus a nursery school for younger children. This year Winterfold children won an impressive 25 scholarships to senior schools.

The school hall was packed with parents and it was lovely to meet so many of them. Like the headmaster, they were an exceptionally nice bunch, and we very much enjoyed their lively anecdotes and ideas after the talk.

Georgia, Jill May and Karen

Karen and Georgia outside UBS in Finsbury Avenue, London WC2

Sibling rivalry can be particularly frustrating for working parents. After a long day at the office, no-one wants to come home to find their children whinging and bickering. When time is short, parents need quick, effective strategies to stop fights and stop resentment building up. This was our brief for a well attended lunchtime talk at the UBS headquarters in London, with more staffers linked in from the office in Curzon St .

We were invited by Jill May, the head of Cross Business Development, an old friend who manages to combine her demanding job with raising six delightful children. She has boundless energy and is extremely well-organised, and perhaps it’s not surprising that she was a huge inspiration for the Sorted Parent when we were writing our first book!

We discussed four good ways to stop an argument. Then we showed how a variety of different approaches can reduce sibling rivalry long term, by making children feel less competitive. This was our second talk at UBS and it was an absolute pleasure to be back. Thank you Jill for inviting us.

Left to right: Georgia, Lyn Hobbs, Robena BiBi – parent volunteer, Karen

From the outside, Bowes looks like an ordinary red brick state primary school. But a delightful surprise awaited us on the inside. Full of plants and pictures, the school was buzzing with energy, and Lyn Hobbs, the Parent Support Advisor, was truly inspiring.

With the help of some Lottery money, Lyn has spent a year focussing on healthy eating, organising talks and taking families out on expeditions. Inviting us to speak to the parents about encouraging their children to eat better was the finale of her efforts. She went out of her way to make the talk enjoyable for everybody. It was held in a room called The Meadow, and as parents arrived Lyn played soothing music, and offered an array of lovely fresh fruit, including grapes, strawberries and plums. A lively discussion followed and we left feeling enthused by our wonderful audience.

Georgia and Karen in Brighton

“Sibling rivalry can start the day your second baby is born. So what do you do when your toddler pokes the little one’s face, or demands you put her in the dustbin?  And when you’re already overstretched, how can you make sure that both children get the love and attention as they need? We addressed these and other sibling rivalry issues at the Brighton Baby Expo on Sunday.

The huge exhibition space was packed with a seething mass of pushchairs, every possible stall you could imagine and punctuated by very noisy parent/toddler singalongs, with tambourines and maracas.

Outside the Baby show, Brighton itself seemed blessedly quiet. With England playing Germany in the world cup on television, the streets were almost deserted. It was the perfect opportunity to see the Brighton Pavilion, the flamboyant masterpiece built by the Prince Regent (later George IV). As the eldest of George III’s fifteen children, he almost certainly knew a thing or two about sibling rivalry.”

I spent a wonderful afternoon at Citigroup Plaza, Citi’s headquarters in London. Nearly a hundred bankers attended my talk, and it was broadcast to listeners in their offices all around Europe.

The most amazing thing was the view from the conference room. I was a little concerned I’d find it distracting, but luckily the blinds were closed during the talk so the audience could see the PowerPoint presentation.

I was also very impressed by the people themselves and their level of interest in the talk; truly a group of devoted parents.

We gave our world premiere talk to teenagers at St Paul’s Girls’ School in London. As Karen’s daughter is there, she knows it well, but for Georgia it was a blast from the past, as she is an old Paulina (and couldn’t believe how much has changed).

We had great fun, because the sixth form were so interactive and enthusiastic. The girls really enjoyed thinking about what types of parents they have and how they can communicate better with them.

Afterwards we had lunch with the High Mistress, Ms Farr, and five current Paulinas. It was a great opportunity to hear about their families and their views on family life.

The school is looking absolutely fabulous after a series of recent renovations, and it was a real pleasure to be there.

If you’re ever invited to Merchant Taylors’ School in Liverpool, we suggest you accept! As it’s a big school, we gave two talks on Seven Simple Ways to be a Better Parent, one just after lunch and one in the evening.

We were treated like queens for a day by the lovely PTA Chair, Joanne Powell and the Head of the girls’ school, Mrs. Robinson (whom we met at the GSA conference last year).

Between talks, we were able to take in a bit of culture. We went to Sefton to see Anthony Gormley’s Another Place – a series of 100 cast-iron, life size figures spread along the beach. Then we went to see Richard Wilson’s Turning the Place Over, which turns a cut-out of the side of a building in Liverpool’s city centre inside out, and then the fabulous Walker Art Gallery.

It was a great day altogether. Thank you so much Merchant Taylors’ for inviting us.

We were invited to Jersey to talk to 350 prep school heads at the Independent Associated Prep Schools Conference (IAPS), on managing parents.

The idea of talking to a huge hall, full of prep school heads was daunting, but they were all so incredibly kind and welcoming that we enjoyed ourselves enormously.

The requests for us to speak at prep schools have been flowing in ever since. A big thank you to the head teachers who have already booked us for their schools – we’re looking forward to seeing you again. And thank you to Larraine Curzon for organising such a wonderful event.

There was a small miracle at our talk at the Daylesford Farmshop in Gloucestershire in June. We were all in a Pavilion, originally designed for the Chelsea Flower show, in the middle of the sensational kitchen garden. The talk was about encouraging children to enjoy healthy food, and one mother had brought her three year old, who had always flatly refused to touch vegetables. To her astonishment, after a few minutes, this child was tucking into Daylesford crudités, and wandering round the garden clearly fascinated by the herbs and vegetables.