Now how do I get my hands on the '˜how to be naughty' manual?

Judging by the last couple of days though, he seems to be learning very quickly!

Now I’m not going to claim that he is 100 per cent angel but, generally speaking, my son really is a good boy: listening to me, doing as he is told and being really happy.

But something of the devil seems to have taken over, sparking a fresh bout of ‘testing the boundaries’.

Of course this phenomenon usually occurs when I have his baby sister in my arms or am in the middle of doing something dull like hanging out the washing. It is never anything terrible, more little things to push his luck such as continuing to drive his car along my table when I have told him not to, or refusing to put on his trousers back on after having a wee.

It is always, always those silly little attention-seeking actions designed to make you react, or the ‘I can’t hear you, mum’ inactions which drive you up the wall.

So when I tell my son he has to sit down while eating his raisins, which he interprets as ‘I have to try to run around the living room as fast as I can while eating my raisins’, you can bet your bottom dollar he is being naughty just to see what I will do about it.

It is as though this new school of naughtiness has given my munchkin a special handy guide of how to best to push mummy’s buttons. But this guide also seems to include a chapter of things to get yourself out of trouble.

Top tips include giving me the sweetest smile in the world to try to break me when I am cross with him and telling him off. Another is saying ‘But mummy, I’m not doing it now’ if I scold him for not doing as he is told.

Now I can cope with the occasional naughtiness when we are at home, but this week was the first time I have had to put him in the naughty corner while visiting a friend’s house, I had one little act of defiance after another, followed by a toy-throwing incident which saw him banished to the corner.

I’m going to have to find that naughty instruction manual and burn it at the earliest opportunity.

@KellyBrownMTW