Your kid may not tend to jump at the chance to help you do the grocery shopping, accompany you to a meeting with the bank manager or walk to the post box to post a letter; but if you swapped the car for a bicycle and some panniers, then you may not have as much of a fight on your hands to get them away from the TV.

There’s also a double benefit here – if you get your kids to cycle everywhere instead of lounging around doing nothing, they may just be too tired to argue about going to bed and letting you have some peace. Win win.