It’s the Christmas thank you letters.
“Listen, kids, if you don’t bother to thank Uncle Mark for the book tokens he won’t bother to send them next year.”
Rather like,
“Listen, kids, if you don’t hurry up and submit that UCAS form
you won’t be getting an offer from Southampton/Bristol/York.”
So now I see where it all went wrong. It was Uncle Mark’s fault. Because, in spite of the fact that my procrastinating
children quite often failed to thank him promptly, he went on doggedly and
faithfully sending the very useful book tokens every year.
Obviously, a more hard-nosed attitude on the
part of my relatives would have provided a better preparation for my children
when they were writing their university applications – I’ll have to tell Uncle
Mark that when I thank him for the nice novel he sent me this Christmas.