Smashing iPads is one way to deal with kids' tech habits '“ Zella Compton

But nothing I ever wrote earned the backlash that Kirstie Allsopp has received after she publicly admitted smashing her children's technology.

Seemingly she was so tired of their continued screen time, over and above agreed limits, she took matters into her own hands and that was it. 

Luckily for her she can afford such drastic measures as it's not something that I could do on a regular basis.

Unluckily for her, she was trolled mercilessly on social media. 

Technology is so hard to manage especially when you don't notice the creep until it's too late.

In come the smart phones, then slowly and steadily everyone has them.

Then they're used more and more and before you know it, the whole family's watching telly and on social media at the same time. Second screening away as if that's the way life should be lived.

Luckily in our house we caught the creep mostly before it got to the table.

Mobile phones are around at breakfast as that's an eat-when-you-come type of affair and people are left to amuse themselves.

But lunch and supper are no-tech zones. Mostly.

Of course the children try to sneak in a peak when their device pings '“ pretending to turn it off and actually checking who it is that needs their urgent help '“ like we all haven't used that one.

What they don't realise is that I can see through all their devious uses of devices.

I do keep meaning to set some more boundaries, a few hours a day without devices when we all sit down to play board games.

That feels like the type of thing families should aspire to do, but then, I'd have to sit down to play board games which in itself feels like a distinct type of hell.

Plus, I'd need to Instagram every game to show how awesome we are as a family, and doesn't that rather defeat the point? '‹'‹'‹'‹'‹'‹

After Twilight and Buffy, I just can't get my teeth into Discovery

Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches is coming to the small screen.

Lured in by the reviews, I bought the trilogy for summer reading, and who doesn't love a great vampire / witch romance?

After all, we've been served them up in every form of entertainment as staple fare for the past decade.

But this time I didn't love it as pretty much everything in there I'd read before. This is not an accusation of plagiarism, more a reflection of how much undead dross I read and view.

I'll be skipping the TV show as I had to force myself to stay awake reading the books. Anyway, vampires are never as handsome in the flesh as they are on screen. 

Preparing for the return of our messy, noisy, lovely boy

My son has spent the last five months in Canada, so I am using this space to publicly state how much I am looking forward to having him come home.

 I will then be able to use this as documentary evidence to remind myself how much I missed him. I'll pull it out when his shoes all over the house get too much, when the clomping up and down the stairs starts to drive me insane, when intensely loud bass is playing to accompany the washing-up of three plates.

And when I'm walking through clouds of Lynx-like man-smell which will fill the house after every shower.  

How ironic, I started writing this column saying I no longer wrote about my children's bad habits.