WHAT we want, of course, is choice. And that means men too.

After decades in which women have had it all - careers, children, permanent headaches - a new survey of women between 20 and 34 reveals that most of them would like to stay at home with their children while their husbands go out to work and support them.

Fine. Excellent. But I wonder if anyone asked the young husbands what they thought?

For this generation of young men has not been brought up in the old role of man the provider, but to consider women their equals - and will no doubt expect them to do their bit towards paying the mortgage as well.

The idea of the traditional family roles has a definite appeal. After all, it worked pretty well for centuries. And even dedicated career women often want and need at least some time at home with their babies.

But the world has moved on. We cannot put the genie back in the bottle or turn back the clock to the 1950s.

Interesting that at the moment the majority of families living out the traditional roles are either the very rich, who can afford to live on one salary, or those where the women would earn little more than it would cost her in childcare.

For the rest, it means a mixture of full time and part time, of a few years off and then maybe a different way of working.

And now we have proved that men - well, some of them - are equally capable of keeping the domestic show on the road, increasing numbers are going to want the chance to be stay-at-home dads, supported by their working wives.

Let's just hope they don't marry the girls from that survey.

THE stress of the school run is turning women into maniacs says a new study.

I can believe it. When you have a new baby in the car you drive oh-so-slowly and carefully and expect the rest of the world to do so too. Hence all those twee little Baby on Board stickers.

By the time your precious bundle starts school and you're late picking him up, you're nipping through traffic, taking bends too fast and shooting off from junctions - even if you have Baby no 2 in the car with you.

But the nearest I got to an accident was when I looked in the rear view mirror expecting to see my two-year-old safely in his baby seat and he wasn't there - but two tiny feet were sticking up over the edge of the estate part at the very back.

Then they get older and bicker and quarrel and give each other sly kicks and scream and cry and shout, making it almost impossible for a parent to drive safely and concentrate on the road.

A few years ago there was a story of a mother who stopped at a service station with her three sons and while they went to the loo she drove off without them. Yes of course it was terribly cruel and irresponsible.

But gosh, don't you know exactly how she felt?

"RICHARD Hillman reveals all to the Mirror!" screams a headline above a picture of Coronation Street actor Brian Capron. Then another paper reveals "Baby joy for Gina" but in actual fact it's Heartbeat actress Tricia Penrose who's pregnant. And they wonder why we get increasingly confused between television and the real world...

Terrifying Thomas

WATCHING Thomas the Tank Engine could terrify young children and put them off travelling by train says psychologist Dr Brian Young. Apparently the television versions of Thomas and his friends have too many crashes and accidents. Oh dear.

Maybe they should be more like the firemen in Trumpton. Pugh, Pugh, Barney Mcgrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub - not to mention Captain Flack - regularly went to the rescue of stranded cats, leaking roofs, stopped clocks - anything that needed a tall ladder to e-l-e-v-a-t-e. But did they ever in any of the programmes ever get to an actual fire? No, much too busy having band practice.

Maybe Andy Gilchrist and his lads could sue for misrepresentation.