Five boys love me and I'm a princess.

I'm quite excited today. Tired and rough as I've been feeling, not only do I get to go to Brownies this afternoon, but I get to dress up for the occasion. It's like being 8 all over again.

I should explain. I volunteer as a Brownie Guider, so attending Brownies is a weekly occurrence for me. In fact, I'm not looking forward to the summer holidays for the simple fact that I don't get to go to Brownies for over a month. It really is one of the highlights of my week. This term we've been working on the Culture interest badge, and so tonight we are having "Book Night". Everyone is coming along dressed as their favourite book character, and we'll have a quick chat about our favourite books before we dissolve into games and general mayhem. I'm going to be the Wife of Bath. I just have to play down the whole sex-mad side of the character.

The thing I really enjoy about my time at Brownies is that I get to unleash my inner child for a while. For an hour and a half every week the only other adult in the room is Brown Owl, who is there for exactly the same reason I am. Although I have to keep order, there is nobody there who will judge me or think me odd when I sing loudly and badly, when I join in the silly games with the girls, or when I live so completely in the moment that everything stressful in my life just ceases to exist. A couple of weeks ago I pretended to be a mountain goat while singing a song that contains the words "when we are married we'll have sausages for tea". Where can you do that in the real world?

This is the magic of children. They always live completely in the moment. This is why so many weeks I go home brimming with confidence and proudly announce my quote of the day to Robin. One of my favourite examples came from last term, when one small girl was telling us about how popular she is at school and her role in the school play in one sentence. That's right: "five boys love me and I'm a princess". This is a phrase that has almost become a mantra for me; whenever I feel sad, lonely or stressed I just remember that five boys love me and I'm a princess, and everything seems right with the world again.