My mother has 'entrusted' me, with some trepidation, to buy the niece and nephew's gifts myself on her behalf.

I'm enjoying it so much it can't be healthy.

Some months ago somebody at work bought their child a fabulous - and huge! - play kitchen. We all know that one of the ways to help children love food is to involve them in its production. Nonetheless we're all scared to release them on to the real thing.

I have been trawling the net for an hour. Some kitchens, according to the review, fall apart in days. Others require assembly (my brother would kill me). Some reviews talk of paint which starts to peel immediately. So this, short of 100% supervision and a fire extinguisher, is the best one I have found.

It is this fantastic Theo Klein toy kitchen from Amazon. It has equipment, stuff that goes ping and pop and all the things that children really adore and it is huge. It is also good for ages 2 to 6 which means my nephew and niece can both play/fight in it regardless of their age difference.