Mr & Mrs Y’s children, just like those of Mr & Mrs X, have very busy lives. But there the similarity ends.

They want their children to excel academically, and also to excel at everything they do outside school. They have very different cultural values, are very family oriented, and instill into Master and Miss Y that they are expected to be high achievers and bring credit to their families. Childhood, for them, is primarily serious rather than fun, but they find something they really enjoy they may well have fun as well.

So the Y children spend much of their spare time having extra tuition, either individually or in groups, to help them get into their favoured selective secondary school. This may well involve things like Kumon Maths, practising Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning tests and so on. But if they get higher grades, secure a place at a top university, get a first in their degree and make a lot of money it will have been worthwhile.

They also take their extra-curricular activities very seriously: they will also spend hours every week practising the piano or the violin, and taking their grade exams at an early age. If their parents are themselves interested in chess, they’ll be playing chess seriously as well. They won’t have time for the low level school clubs enjoyed by the X children. Instead, they’ll join a professionally run centre of chess excellence, they’ll book some private tuition, they’ll expect their children to do chess homework, and they’ll enter them in tournaments on a regular basis.

The way they see it is this: chess is a subject for serious study, which will stand them in good stead when they come to the serious study needed for GCSEs and A Levels. Playing in a serious tournament is like taking an exam: you’re sitting in total silence and not allowed to ask for help. Playing in tournaments where you have six one-hour games during the day is, they perceive, an ideal preparation for scholastic exams later in life.

Unless Mr & Mrs Y see their children as being potential grandmasters they will probably take their children out of chess after a few years because they need more time for academic studies, but, although it will have cost them quite a lot they will see it as money well spent.

Of course you’ll realise that both the X and Y families are reasonably affluent, and, of course, both sets of parents are wonderful people who, like all parents, want the best for their children, and are prepared to spend money on ensuring they have a good childhood. However, they have very different views about the nature of a ‘good childhood’.