I recall a trip to IKEA, a place I detest with conviction. My eldest looked set to follow in my footsteps because he complained of being dragged around a place that was ‘soooooo boring’.

But then we squared up to each other with a couple of cushions, and things escalated.

We began fighting. Before you knew it, ‘swords’ were involved. Fragile items aside, we learnt that almost everything could be repurposed as a weapon in IKEA.

Suddenly, IKEA wasn’t boring. It was exciting – a battle arena where father and son could ignore everyone around them and focus on the moment.

My wife told us off. Countless times. Apparently, IKEA wasn’t a place for our nonsense: other people were trying to shop, and the staff would tell us off.

She was wrong on almost all counts. People were trying to shop, but no one minded skirting around us if we got in the way. Most smiled upon the scene.

This experience reminded me that there is always an excuse not to play: work, exhaustion or that really important piece of life admin. Perhaps you’re in the wrong environment for playfighting.

Or maybe there’s no excuse. Maybe you need to step aside and let your inner child take centre stage for a while and screw what everyone else thinks. Yes, that includes conforming to societal expectations of behaving in the ‘correct manner’ in public.