Let us imagine that you are a bloke who has just flown the parental nest to set up home for the first time. (Perhaps you are a bloke who has just fled the parental nest. In that case you won’t have to use your imagination, will you? The rest of you, make an effort.)

Anyway, what do you think might be your preoccupation in this situation? Whether the plasma screen is big enough? Whether the capacity of the fridge is adequate for the quantity of beer it will be expected to contain? How long you can get away with not changing your duvet cover before girls start to go “Ew!”?

In Germany the answer appears to be none of the above. There, the exit from what is wistfully known as “Mutti-Wunderland” is regarded not as a liberating (if heroically squalid) rite of male passage, but grounds for plangent nostalgia. Hence the roaring success of an “ask mummy” website and spin-off book.

Frag-mutti.de abounds with motherly tips on how to get your Fenster really unsmeary (tea-tree oil) and what to do about Dicke Wollpullis (always such a problem for a young man).

For the really homesick Junger, there is even an “Ask Daddy” option offering manly advice.