Picture of the Day 15.06.19: Growing Up

I spent an afternoon with my oldest in central London shopping, squabbling, disagreeing and trying to hold my tongue.  Her GCSE exams are finished now thankfully, and she is job hunting, I hope this is enough to keep her busy and out of mischief.

I have come to the conclusion that we have different values and such a different way of looking at things and I am trying to respect that.  It still pains me the influence of peers and popular culture and how quickly it seemed to erode everything we have tried to teach our children: respect, compassion, faith and community.  Yet the pull of a certain kind of materialistic culture seems to override everything (the one that has every foolish teen talking about their “best life” – usually referring to new trainers, make-up and being allowed to go to Westfield shopping centre on their own. I can’t tell you how much I have come to hate the term).

In any case, we seem to have come to a kind of truce, where she is allowed to go out unsupervised, but must tell me where she is and come home before six and I try not to stick my nose into her business too much. In return she will be polite to her grandparents and help in the house when asked.

I am so tired of fighting and trying to keep an eye on what is going on with her, I have four others to take care of alongside my in-laws at the moment.  I think this is the point where she has to take responsibility for her actions and start managing her time, money, worship and studies – she is the one who will have to live with the outcome.