WHEN asked at nursery why she wasn't playing, my three-year-old told staff: "I'm stressed out." They laughed when they told me and so did I, despite being a tad embarrassed - it was obvious from whom she had picked up the phrase.

That may have been brushed off as a humorous incident but, in reality, children as young as two are becoming stressed. They have so much on their plates they are developing ailments more commonly associated with middle age - serious conditions like depression. Many are in therapy.

Of course, some are plagued by such problems due to family difficulties, but, according to a survey among doctors' practices, many are there simply because they are over-burdened.

When I was a child, out-of-school hours were spent

playing in our bedroom, out in the garden or at a friend's house. Nowadays every minute is accounted for with some tuition or other - the violin, tap dancing, singing, ballet, French.

Children aren't allowed to be children any more, they are child proteges. They are whisked from one place to another, as if no stone should be left unturned to create a multi-talented child who will grow into a mini-Mozart, a pint-sized Pavarotti or a cute little Kenneth Branagh.

I wouldn't mind either one of my daughters following in JK Rowling's footsteps - anything to keep me in the

manner of the Queen Mum throughout old age - but I wouldn't dream of enrolling them on Malcolm Bradbury's creative writing course.

Yet there are parents who seek out professional tutors of all description for children barely old enough to hold a book. It all puts pressure on other parents.

"Are you taking Joe to pottery class?" I asked my friend when a note came home from our children's school offering the extra-curricular activity. She wasn't. I heaved a sigh of relief - it meant I wouldn't be pressured to partake.

I'm ashamed to admit my eldest daughter does ballet - I didn't make her. In fact, I wasn't keen (the thought of all those 'ballet mums'), but her friends did it. Now she likes it, so I'm stuck with it. But I make sure everyone knows it wasn't my idea.

Some children never have a moment's break - no time to slump in front of a video, to fight with their sisters and brothers, to generally hang around doing nothing. No wonder they're stressed.

It's not that I don't want my children to be empty-headed. To be honest I'd like them to grow up with a little more multi-skilling than I had.

But that's now. If, as a child, anyone had asked me whether I wanted to devote my free time to music,

languages or drama, I'd have told them where to go.

I suppose I had what many parents today call a

mis-spent youth. But at least I didn't need therapy then. It's taken 41 years for that.