IT has taken three years but my transformation into a fullyfledged parent is now complete.

The realisation that I was now firmly-entrenched in this particular club should have hit me when I awoke on a bank holiday morning in a caravan in Cornwall to the sound of rain pounding on top of the roof.

It didn’t though. At that point I just thought, ‘oh dear.’ It actually came a bit later.

Maybe it was when I found myself tramping through a farm park in torrential rain towards some sorrylooking ponies.

Or was it the bit when I was sat on an uncomfortably damp tractor’s trailer with a dawning realisation that water was soaking slowly through my jeans?

Possibly it was later on when I exchanged wry smiles with other parents at the swimming pool as their children demanded loudly, ‘when are we going to the beach?’ Short answer. Not today kids.

Actually we had been to the beach. That was the day before the rain when we set up camp as close to the shelter of the cliff side as we could physically get and ate ice cream in temperatures more suited to the arctic circle than the English coast.

I really should have known it then.

And, if not, one of the three inconveniently-timed outdoor wees my son insisted on doing at the side of the road during the day should have given me a big clue.

In any case, it was only on the return journey that the penny finally dropped that we were now the stereotypical British family, making the best of an Easter holiday despite the weather being resolutely against us.

All these situations were ones I’ve been in before. It’s just that before I was the child.

Now I had the added burden of making sure that even though we were wet and cold, we were still having a good time.

So I didn’t moan that it rained non-stop for nearly 24 hours and took everything the elements could throw at us with a good grace.

I think parents deserve a medal for this stuff.

So more wry smiles all round to those of you who also spent a wet and windy Easter weekend having fun in parks, farms or on beaches.

Don’t forget. It’ll be the same place, same time, same driving rain on Monday, May 7.

See you there.