Stay-at-home mums who put the hours in | Parents and parenting

I was a stay-at-home mother, with four sons in six years (Opinion, 20 March). “Do you work?” I was often asked. “Very hard,” I’d reply. People were unimpressed. My mum advised me to answer: “Yes. I’m a cook, housekeeper and nanny for a man and his four children.” Pause for gasps of admiration. “And, if I’m very good, I get to sleep with the boss.” That kept them quiet.
Louise Cumiskey
West Molesey, Surrey

Your reasons to visit Southend-on-Sea (22 March) omit the two glorious features of the city: the quality of the light over the Thames estuary, particularly at low tide, and the unsurpassable Rossi’s ice cream. I moved away from Southend in 1979 and miss them both.
Elizabeth Atkinson
Highgate, London

How can Uganda remain part of the Commonwealth after passing a law making homosexuality a capital offence (Report, 21 March)?
Ian Godfrey
Cockfosters, London

You must have known 22 March was my birthday. Thank you for the best present imaginable – the return of Marina Hyde (Decision time: did habitual liar Boris Johnson tell some lies? It’s going to be tense, 21 March).
John Lowery
London

Am I the only person to find Boris Johnson’s defence that “a big boy made me do it” entirely credible?
Ben Ashford
Shrewsbury, Shropshire