Of course, I didn't believe him, except that when he told me this week that he wanted to be an "artist" and not a doctor any more I realised that I had become rather attached to the idea. Already. I think I might have actually said out loud: "Why don't you become a doctor and do 'art' in your spare time?" I did, because I remember how adamant he was about the art. I now know never to say it to him again, ever . . . or he will definitely drop out of art school and become a drug dealer.

The horrible irony is I am a writer and his father is a graphic designer. We get to be arty when we want him to be a 'professional'. Why?

WHY?

Are doctors or accountants or lawyers any better than the rest of us? No. Are they richer than us in these days when you can't get hold of your plumber because he is holidaying in his golf resort villa in the Algarve? Not really. Are people who train in the professions any happier in themselves or in their marriages? Or any more intelligent or nicer as people than anybody else? In my honest and reasonably vast experience of people? No. Actually, emphatically not.

Secretly applauding my toddler for wanting to grow up and be a doctor is certainly one of the darkest confessions I have ever publicly made because it exposes me to having an element of the most tacky, tasteless of human failings which is, to my mind, snobbery.

Wanting your son to be a doctor puts one in the same region as thinking you are posher than somebody else because you have a better job, or a more 'refined' accent, or a bigger house. I don't think there is anything sadder than being a snob, except perhaps being a racist . . . which is, lets face it, little more than snobbery for people with very low self-worth.

But children will do that to you. Get inside your value system and wriggle it about until you find yourself caring about things that you never thought you would like organic food, the environment and getting a university education.

Because for any parent the most important thing to them is their child's future. We all want our children to be successful, so we strive to give them the best education. But I wonder sometimes if our education system, which still puts too much value on exams, narrows our ideal of what "successful" is . . . the kudos of being a "professional" or the life skills required to be a rounded human being. Of course, it's not an either/or decision but if I had to choose for my child . . . I'd sacrifice the former for the latter any day.