Dear Deborah Haines of Sky News, and Dr Clare Wenham, I see you. I really do.

I understand the struggles of working from home and looking after children. I salute you for a stellar job. Handing out biscuits and helping children find the perfect place for ornaments is hard enough without the added complexity of having a coherent chat about current affairs on live TV, but you pulled it off brilliantly.

Thank you for normalising motherhood, and not hiding it as a source of shame.

I’ve been a freelance journalist and a writer for over a decade. I’ve felt as if I’m winging it most of the time and coming undone at the seams, probably because in today’s world, motherhood is not celebrated, it is concealed.

Our children are seen as things we need to manage, and the sweat equity that goes into raising them brings little social capital. My three sons, age six, three and one and a half, have brought me unbridled joy, and the kind of love I only dreamed of. They have also brought me a whirlwind of chaos, endless cleaning, and a maternal rage I attribute to the cloak of invisibility I unknowingly donned on giving birth.

Mothers, never apologise for your children - not even during a live news interview