A while ago, I read an article that claimed that when siblings are close together in age, the older one turns out stoopid because Mum was too busy feeding the baby to drill the toddler on its times tables. My kids are 18 months apart. Ouch - poor, doomed Curly Girlie. Naturally, and probably with an enormous amount of good reason, I poo-pooed this article.

Months and months later, though, it still niggles. My fevered little mind keeps poo-pooing my poo-poo.