Between them, my girls were enduring mental anguish, physical illness, muscular pain, emotional distress and extreme anxiety. I had done all I could to alleviate some of the symptoms but could nothing to eliminate any of the causes.

When you are a parent, complicated concerns and exasperating evenings are not a rare thing.

After nineteen years on the job as a mother, unfortunately there are times when I cannot muster another ounce of empathy to enter into my children's suffering.

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Sometimes I am not emotionally, mentally or physically strong enough myself to do more than offer some fairly ineffective sympathy, while keeping the fridge and medicine chest stocked with whatever is necessary.

Thank goodness at 14, 16 and 18, my girls are mature enough to know that they can survive a sleepless night now and then without it derailing their lives.

They know that feelings aren't forever, pain passes and even the ugliest head cold eventually eases.

They understand that for difficult conditions and situations that are set to continue, there must be treatments and coping strategies employed, alongside bucketloads of prayer.

Giving it up to God is the only way I am saved from the crushing pressure of parenting, as curled-up in the palm of God's hand is my refuge.

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Without the lows though, the highs aren't quite so breathtaking are they?

In a week where my youngest teenagers missed half their schooling with heavy head colds - and let's face it, you can't go out with one of those in 2021 - my eldest daughter graduated from secondary school.

Last Friday night, she and 249 other pretty excited people, celebrated the successful completion of six years of secondary school by a special class of teenagers. This included a collection of the toughest cookies I've ever come across.

Completing Year 12 in 2020 was no walk in the park.

Every social highlight was cancelled or delayed, with milestones extremely thin on the ground.

Did this make celebrating the successes all the sweeter?

I think me and every other parent in the room bursting with pride at Friday's Valedictory dinner for 2020's Year 12s would agree that it certainly did.