Child, Dearest

There's a fable waiting to be written about who is the best son for a father to have.

It will incorporate someone like AC Milan striker Kaka, whose father Bosco Leite may get to decide whether or not he will accept an offer to earn a weekly £500,000 in return for kicking a ball (albeit into a net) on at least a fairly regular basis. There will be characters in it like Flintshire's (UK) Kevin Gaskell, 50, and 18-year-old son Matt, who went walkabout round the South Pole to raise some money in memory of father Gaskell's sister Jayne. However, the winner of the whose-the-best-child-to-have contest will be simple, humble Wen Wen, 38, from Xi'an in Central China. W² walked into a hospital with a knife buried in his head thanks to his father and his only concern was for his 76-year-old pa who'd taken a runner: ""He's old but sane and rational and I've no idea why he did it. I'm worried that he might think he's in trouble now and won't come back to the family."

And now we await the modern Aesop to craft the tale.