You’ve heard the saying ‘You and whose Army?’ probably when you were in the school playground. It is used as an expression of disbelief in someone’s ability to carry out a threat.

I am waiting for my son to scream ‘You and whose Army?’ at me when he becomes a teenager and I tell him I will confiscate all his technology if he doesn’t do his homework.

So what do we say when asked this question? Whose Army will it be? Is it necessary to have an Army behind us now that we are no longer in the playground?

Most of us would wish to live in a nicer world, a kind of world that was free of war and without the need for army’s but how could we change it? Who holds the power? Presidents and Prime Ministers? Kings and Queens? Where would we even start?

The frightening things we see every day on the News and in the papers is enough to scare us into believing it is impossible to change such evil. The hatred, hurt and cruelty we inflict on each other, to stop that we would definitely need an army right? An army of millions if not billions?

Since becoming a parent my world has been turned upside down. I even wrote a book about it Rattles & Battles. I don’t think I would have gotten through those first few fretful months if it weren’t for my own personal army of family, friends and my Husband.

I am still only a few years into parenting and I learn everyday. I find out about my patience, my tolerance and my limits, which I am pushed to physically, emotionally and mentally on a weekly basis (and that’s just attempting the school run!!).

It is only now that I have realised how much power and responsibility I have.

I am not a President, a Prime Minister or a Princess but I am performing the most life changing and important role there is. I am raising another human being. Could you imagine what the Job Description would be for such a position? The personal specification with the list of essential and desirable qualities? If we had to apply to be a parent I doubt many of us would even get an interview?

It was once said that with great power comes great responsibility, and it is my duty to instil kindness, empathy, love and respect into the tiny little human life that I brought into this world and the weight of that is only just dawning on me.

In the time before I had my own children I thought or assumed a lot of things were down to nature, but I am realising a lot of it is down to nurture. I see the way my child watches me and soaks everything up like a little sponge. What I do, what I say and how I behave. I said to someone how shocked I was that my son expresses so much empathy at such a young age, and it wasn’t until they said to me ‘It’s because you are so full of it, it rubs off’, that I realised how important my actions were to him.

I wish I had been more prepared and educated about how the role of a parent is so important and crucial and maybe that is something that should be changed?

If you want to change the world do you start with the Chicken or the Egg? It would be ironic if we have spent thousands of years giving our power away to false gods when the one person we should have given it to all along was ourselves.

In society it can sometimes feel like mums and dads are undervalued, under appreciated and underestimated.

However, now I am one I have realised I am part of the most powerful and potentially world changing army there ever was. So, ‘You and whose army?’

Well mums of course.

When mums support each other incredible things can happen.