We met a fellow twin father with his babies when taking our afternoon stroll today. This was not our usual stroll, however, as we had just changed the pram into a pushchair and our babies sat peering out at the dark, dank autumn air. A special occasion.

So, wet leaves dragging at the wheels of our respective prams, we stopped – as we do these days – to admire the new pushchair arrangements, for they too had changed theirs a few days earlier.

The two fathers stooped over the other’s vehicle, pulling metal bars and frowning at extraneous velcro straps. “What did you do with this bit?” “And how are you folding yours up?”, the questions flew back and forth. It was an engrossing conversation lasting more than ten minutes, only concluded by at least one frantic baby bored of the windswept pavement.

There would have been days when these two men shared secrets about the fine-tuning of Vespar engines. How times change. What next? How to install a high chair …