I doubt I was the only parent who saw The Apprentice this Wednesday, and I’m probably not the only one who pays that little bit more attention whenever they design a ‘baby toy’ or ‘parenting solution’.

For me, Splash Back – a perspex screen attached to the bath to prevent water getting out of the bath – didn’t make much sense. I’m even willing to overlook the fact that Team Sterling’s creation fell into the Child’s Toy category rather than required Homeware category Sir Alan Sugar had demanded.

I had several issues with it – foremost being that I’m not sure we parents want to reduce bath time to a boring, splash free affair for our kids. Personally, I love to see Jack making a mess and racket in the bath. He clearly gets loads of entertainment out of it.

Also, as most parents know, preventing splashing in the bath is nearly as impossible as trying to avoid red lights on a regular car journey.

The Splash Back – as clearly demonstrated in the ‘vigorous’ testing it underwent on the show – failed even on this basic front. And this was little surprise.

When I was watching, I couldn’t help but analyse it in the context of Jack’s behaviour in the bath. Ever since he’s been able to interact, Jack has tried to splash anyone within range with water whenever he’s bathing. I doubt the Splash Back would have proved much of a barrier on that front.

We then come on to the addition of stickable bath toys and bath crayons (which tend to be wipe clean).

What relation did these have to the Splash Back? Jack has these, and we have no trouble keeping our tub clean after bath time. And let me tell you, Jack has expended an entire crayon trying to ‘colour in the bath’ on more than one occasion.

So, would I buy the Splash Back? Most definitely not. We already have the toys (or similar ones, at least), and the perspex sheet appears completely redundant. Jack’s bath times are messy, wet and lots of fun because of it. And I want it to stay that way.