Being a parent is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. There is no instruction manual and no one teaches you how to do it. Parents must be multi-skilled; needing to cook, clean, wash, iron, play, read stories, teach, manage accounts, referee fights and quarrels, be taxi drivers and the rest and all of this without pay! If this were not hard enough, children often become poorly, which makes the task of parenting even more difficult as it is always an anxious time when they are ill. Parents may not be able to diagnose the specific problem but they instinctively know when there is something wrong. It is worth remembering that most bouts of illness pass quickly and leave a child better able to resist the next attack. By reading this book parents may gain a better understanding of some of the more common childhood illnesses, which may in turn help to alleviate some of the anxiety surrounding them.