The end of year can be a fun, joyous and relaxing time. Unless of course, you have children. Sure, the joy is still there and it’s often magnified by childhood innocence and the deep feeling that there is just so much good in this world. However, you are often balancing that with term four at school, end-of-year work responsibilities, social obligations, financial strains and of course, your in-laws visiting. Here’s how to best pair coffee with these stressful situations.

Present request changes: when your 11-year-old daughter, who has spent the last year being a die-hard ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ fan, suddenly declares that Toothless is dead to her and she’s only interested in K-Pop Demon Hunters. This scenario requires a panicked run to Big W (thank God you kept the receipt for the remote-controlled flying dragon you bought), so while you’re there, pop into Leaf Café for a Belgium Mocha. They make this with MELTED CHOCOLATE and a double shot of espresso and it’s my happy drink. Feel free to cry in the car on the way home because they sold out of K-Pop Demon Hunters in October. Draft a bitter email to Netflix with Siri’s help on the way home.

End-of-year assignments: Your 17-year-old tells you at 8.23 pm on Sunday that they have an assignment due in 12 hours and they just need to write a quick four pages on the social inequities of the health care system in relation to Indigenous Australians using data from at least five sources, but they might need a tiny bit of help. Get out the percolator and make a pot. It’ll be an all-nighter. God speed.

School commitments: If you’re like me, you haven’t yet learned your child’s teacher’s name, set foot on school grounds once this year nor spoken to a single other parent. Your child will probably RUIN THIS by excelling academically and suddenly you are required to attend a presentation ceremony. Just awful. Make yourself a coffee at home and pop it in your engraved ‘there’s a chance this is vodka’ travel mug to discourage anyone from talking to you.

Parties: your best friend invites you to a Christmas “get together” but you had a fight with her other best friend 13 years ago and the two of you still hate each other. This one is easy - espresso martinis all round. By the fourth one you won’t even remember what the fight was about and you’ll be at Mr Lim’s singing ‘Friends Forever’ by Vitamin C. Good times.

The next day: you know the one. After the work Christmas party, the girl’s drinks or the boozy book club you attend that never actually reads books, you may wake up feeling less than fresh. Have a quick shower, then head to Byng St coffee. I use the app to order a double shot cap and pick up from the coffee window so I don’t have to interact with actual people and then I manage a full day at work without getting fired. I get a second coffee at lunch time (another cap but this time from Good Eddy) when last night’s photos start appearing on social media. I don’t remember participating in karaoke…

Wrapping presents: like most (but #notall) mums, I do the majority of the Christmas present shopping, organising, wrapping and hiding. This is pure joy when you have excited toddlers. Not so much with tweens and teens. This year, everyone is getting books due to budget, screen time-related parenting concerns and my wrapping paper OCD. While I’m at Collins, I’ll pop over to the Coffee club for a mocha frappe. This is delicious on its own, but once I’m home and wrapping gifts while listening to Christmas carols, and I accidentally tip in a couple of capfuls of Kahlua, it’s mind-blowingly good.

Your Mother-in-law texts to ask if there’s anything they need to bring for Christmas lunch - but you didn’t know they were coming for Christmas lunch and you certainly didn’t invite them to attend: pour half a bottle of Baileys Espresso Crème Liquor over half a tub of Connoisseur Belgian chocolate ice cream and call it a day. 'Tis the season!