Don't say you weren't warned

X-Man's mum is having a baby and she's due in about three months.

When we get together we seem to spend a lot of time laughing, which is great for the moment, but closer to her due date I'm going to have to be careful about what I say.

Why is that? Well, I'm glad you asked.

It starts with my Gran. She had a wickedly dry sense of humour that she passed on to my Dad, and he passed it on to me. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, this is the kind of sense of humour that can get you into a lot of trouble, particularly at those potentially disastrous moments when your mouth is faster than your brain.

I don't know how many times my Dad was nearly suspended from school because of his sense of humour, but I do know that he's always been able to put people at ease and make them laugh.

In one of his more famous moments he made a grown man wet his pants, but what really concerns me is that he has reportedly sent three heavily pregnant women into labour just by making them laugh, and herein lies the problem.

As my dear friend gets closer to her due date and grows more and more tired she will no doubt want more support, but can I spend more time with her knowing that I might wind up driving her to the hospital as a result of some feeble joke that I blurt out before I've even thought of it?

So you see my conundrum. I've done all I can do. I told her about my Dad and his superpower and I've cautioned her that I don't know what I'm capable of.

She can't say she wasn't warned.