The commonly accepted wisdom is that babies and toddlers need a set routine in order to thrive. As someone who quite passionately hated routine and stasis for most of his pre-fatherhood adult life, I wondered how I’d cope with doing the same thing, day in, day out.

As it turns out, the problem proved to be quite the opposite.

I’ve now had such an omnipresent routine for so long that this week’s illness left me oddly worried - not about the illness itself, but about the fact I wasn’t at work.

And tonight, I’m going to the pub with some old friends. Most normal thing in the world, but yet it’s a break from the routine, and it’s left me feeling anxious and even nervous.

WTF, brain. WTF.