Fear

My son was nervous on his first day of school this year. "I feel like I'll get lost with all the other children running around everywhere," he said. So I gave him a man-to-man chat, explaining that it's OK to be scared, but sometimes we have to do things even when we feel scared. And then we feel much better afterwards.

"I was scared to go to Colombia," I said... "There's lots of bad people there, army guys with guns and bombs that try to kill each other. I didn't want to talk to them, but I marched up to those bad guys," - here I stuck out my arm to suggest holding a microphone; or that's how it looked to me - "...and asked them questions. I was scared they might hurt me."

He paused, amazed at his father's daring, I supposed. I braced for his gushing admiration. Instead, he lookedup at me with scrutiny: "What did you do?"

"I asked questions," I said.

"You didn't have to shoot them."

"No."

"Oh." He sounded crestfallen. "That's boring, Dad."

I'm glad to say he was fine on his first day at school.