et me tell you about Katie*. She’s a 42-year-old mum of three. She’s done the first-day-at-school ritual twice before: taken doorstep photos of her sons in pristine uniform, and shed fleeting tears on both occasions – but she’s really struggled with the thought of her daughter, Zara*, starting reception this year. Bemused by her reaction, in therapy she said, ‘I thought I’d feel relieved – but I feel like it’s the end of an era.’ Such rites of passage don’t sound up there on the list of
