It's official. I'm not such a bad mother after all and they're not going to take my kids away.

So why do I feel like my safety net has disapeared?

The one good thing about having social workers about the place is you know that if you're really screwing up badly they'll take the kids away. It means that there's a limit to how much damage you can do to your kids.

Oh I don't mean physical damage. I mean the really nasty stuff. The mental damage you do without even meaning to.

Take me for example. I have a deep conviction that I am a bad and usless person. I have a self eteem so low that not even snakes could limbo dance under it. And my parents didn't mean for that to happen. They tried their best and if I'd been born with a slightly different personality I might have thrived with exactly the same upbringing. They wern't bad parents they were just unlucky and ignorant. But it was the 70s and no-one was making helpful TV progams for parents.