My View: Teddy take note – we don't want the bear facts in your diary

If you've had a child at primary school in recent years, chances are you'll know all about teddy diaries.

The idea is that each class of reception-age children has a teddy bear, which visits each child's family in turn, usually for a week, keeping a diary of its exploits, as recorded by the child (OK, by the parents).

The concept of the teddy diary as a bridge between home and the classroom started in Norway in 1997, when reform meant six-year-olds started having to go to school for the first time. Since then, it's spread across the world and now Randi Wrdahl, an academic at Oslo University, is using the diaries as a research tool, turning the spotlight on Norway and China.

These are not realistic reports of family life, but what parents want others to think their life is like, conscious that each diary is read by other families and by teachers.

The differences are intriguing. In the middle-class suburbs of Oslo, the teddies are adventurous, skiing, going to log cabins and attending birthday parties.

But in an affluent suburb in China, teddies tend to stay at home, do lots of homework and go on about brushing teeth and taking showers. Whereas the Norwegian families strive to make their diaries unique, the Chinese families make sure they are pretty much the same as the ones that went before.

It's important that their children are seen as good and conforming to the norm, whereas the norm in Norway is to stand out and be exceptional.

Do the British play the game in the same way? I suspect British teddy in reality spends a lot of time at the pub, traipsing round supermarkets and DIY stores, eating fast food and watching hours and hours of TV, but is this what he reports?

No doubt there are some entries that read: "Woke early, went for five-mile cycle ride, practised piano, had family discussion at tea table about philosophy and world affairs, then went to music recital before cocoa and early bed."

If that diary came to my family next, we would have to report a 10-mile cycle ride, piano and violin practice, reading Tolstoy, family discussions in French and Latin, and an archeological dig followed by a Shakespeare workshop. No other parents would believe it and they'd be right. But we British have a keen sense of the ridiculous and, like Bridget Jones, we know diaries are

full of rubbish.

A word of caution: Don't write in teddy's diary while under the influence of alcohol, "On Saturday night, I sat next to Junior's mummy and drank lots of chardonnay while Junior's daddy snored all the way through X-Factor – again!". On balance, it's probably not a good idea.