Is it the moment you take your newborn baby home from the hospital? Or the lonely hour in the middle of the night many weeks later when you realise you're never going to get an uninterrupted night's sleep ever again? Our readers offer their own answers to the age-old question.

...you find a piece of jigsaw at the bottom of your handbag.

...you spend your evening unravelling a slinky.

...leaving the house is like completing a military checklist.

...you find yourself shouting "Ooh look! A horse/cow/whatever" and realise the children are not actually in the car.

...you realise that ANYTHING can be cleaned with a babywipe.

...all your books and ornaments are 6 feet off the ground.

...you know where the Sellotape and pencils are but not a pen.

...every single light in the house has been turned on..... even when the sun is shining.

you can recite all the words to The Gruffalo without looking at the book!

you find a lego block in your bed.

the phone rings and it's never for you.

you find yourself saying all the stuff your Mum used to say to you when you were a kid.

you hear yourself saying "well I'm not EVERYONE else's mother!"

you have a piece of Sellotape holding your Sky card in.

that warm body and wriggling behind you in bed is not your partner feeling amorous!

you feel lost when you manage to go out on your own and you have to carry your bags rather than hang them on back of the pram!

you put chocolate in the freezer so it's too hard for kids to eat!

you feel that something's missing when you leave the house without a child or pushchair!

Our thanks for all their contributions to this feature go to tidgyb, donnamarie1, toldton4, mumoftwiglet, Alyth_mum, collywobs, fiona2403, tootsieblue, vicar, djayla, nayten, donnamarie1, genevieve, collywobs.

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