17th September
Fostering Blog
Shocking news – we woke up today with a teenager in the house.
It’s Annie’s birthday and she is 13! For weeks I have been thinking about an old Harry Enfield sketch where Kevin becomes a teenager ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLuEY6jN6gY ). The sketch shows Kevin’s parents watching in horror as he lost his sense of dress, courtesy and posture as the clock struck midnight on the day of his thirteenth birthday, thus becoming “Kevin the Teenager” – certainly one of the most memorable of Harry Enfield’s comic creations! I had in mind Annie changing from the funny, sensitive, calm and kind daughter into a cross between Morticia Adams and Violet from the Incredibles.
I have to say I was pleasantly relieved to find Annie still the same girl, excited as ever about her birthday, grateful for all her gifts, and politely feigning the cards being more important than anything else. The thought of having a teenager seemed quite traumatic, with this milestone following both Charlie and I turning 40 a couple of months ago. I am pleased to say that entering our fifth decade and becoming parents of a child in her teens has at least got off to a good start!
Annie wants to spend the morning at home chilling out. After lunch she invites a couple of friends round and we head off to the cinema. As our attention turns to our evening meal, Annie opts to return home for take-out rather than go to a restaurant. I suspect our last meal in a restaurant is still fresh in her memory. At the end of the summer holidays we had gone away with some friends and Alice had had a huge meltdown in a restaurant. Annie was really upset by the commotion.
We decide not to push her on this and we returned home and ordered Pizza. I don’t think her friends minded returning to ours, as it meant they all got more time to chat and hideaway upstairs helping Annie to set up her new phone – now she is 13 we have let her upgrade to a smart phone. In time, we may come to regret this, but we think she is sensible enough to not be silly with it. Having had a basic phone for a year, she has seen some of the pitfalls her friends have fallen into with social media.
She seemed to genuinely enjoy the day and we are grateful that our kind, generous and fun girl has remained largely unchanged, for today at least – wait until she finds out about the limit on her wifi usage!
A Less Ordinary Family Blog
