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When I was a little girl I used to play this elaborate game when I was at home alone. I remember it well.

There was a large window in the passage that looked out onto the drive way and street. Because I was, okay am, a neurotic person every time I walked past that window I would say in a very loud voice “Uncle Ben, I am so glad you are a police man”. I’d say it really loud. And quite unnaturally because I am the world’s worst actress. Also I would do it every time I walked past the window.

I honestly believed that if there was anybody outside plotting evil against me (remember the neurosis) they would hear me talking to my make believe uncle policeman and run away.

I was young. I probably shouldn’t have been home alone. Judging by the fact that I was putting on such an elaborate (and pathetic) ruse I was far from emotionally ready to be by myself in the house.  But maybe that’s just me. A lot of people that I have spoken to were latch key kids from an early age, they came home from school, helped themselves to delicious snacks from the fridge (mostly involving chocolate) and settled down to watch TV uninterrupted by their parents. Or even their policeman uncles.

The Courier Mail reports

I spoke to renowned child psychologist Michael Carr Gregg one of Australia’s highest profile psychologists who specialises in the area of parenting adolescents and adolescent mental health (you can follow him on Twitter here) who says: