Old

Oh, I love having children. I do, most of the time. However, this growing up lark needs to come with a rather large and detailed instruction book to cover all the things that teenage girls (mine at least) want to do.

My eldest is having problems with being alive at the moment, I think. She is having all those normal rebellious teenage things, alongside...well, I'm not totally sure what. She asked me the other day if she could change her surname to match mine, because she thinks her dad does not want or like her. She does not have many friends, and the ones she seems to want to be friendly with are not good for her - resulting in her behaviour being of the sort that makes both Jane and I sit there saying 'If I had behaved like that...' like we are old people!!!

She refused to come home after school the other day - just refused and went somewhere else. I did not know where and she refused to answer the telephone to tell me.

It makes me feel old and haggard, just like this poor cherry that was in the punnet I have been comfort eating!