

Linda's blog: Kevin The Teenager
As you read this my oldest child is celebrating her 13th birthday. Suddenly we have a teenager in the house. For those of you old enough to remember the Harry Enfield sketch of Kevin becoming a teenager, this scene has been playing out in our house with increasing frequency over the last year. Long gone are the days of the consistently sweet, mild mannered, joyful child who chatted away to us and enjoyed our company. A moody, snappy and monosyllabic teen is making frequent and unpredictable appearances in her place.
Whilst it's hard to tell what might bring out my beloved happy-go-lucky first born, we know that mobile phone use is guaranteed to cause tension. We don't have an ipad and luckily for us the children never showed an interest in gaming, so the sudden interest in and arguments about screen time since she got a phone on moving to secondary school, has been an unwelcome shock.
First there was the pressure to use WhatsApp, despite the fact you are meant to be 13. We agreed on the basis every 11 year old we knew had it and we didn't want ours to be excluded from groups. We naively thought we'd be able to keep an eye on the conversation with her friends but it turns out messaging is for old people and they communicate through their status updates (of which there is no record). Since then we've had to navigate the downtime period; use of Snapchat and the shock discovery that she'd been scrolling through you tube videos on the family chrome book after bedtime.
We are learning as we go (I dread the moment she realises she can delete browser history), talking to friends and reading up on parenting advice. I regularly bite my tongue and remind myself that this is just a phase. It may last years (eek) but the upside is that I have a new appreciation for the calm and happy periods, however short they may be. Often this is when she has 1:1 attention and can do what she wants (go figure) but there are also moments of sibling bliss when she spends time with her 9 year old sister. Listening to them giggle as they play a game, watch tv or ask to go to the shop to buy some sweets, is more heart warming than ever. Last weekend saw them working together to heave several mattresses into one bedroom to show that it was possible to have a 6 person sleepover. Back in my day we'd have all slept on the floor but hey, I know I have to choose my battles!
Happy birthday to my darling girl. Needless to say I will be doing everything I can to ensure she isn't aware I've written this so I don't incur her teenage wrath.
Linda is a lawyer with two children. She and her husband both work full time and juggle the school run and everything else between them.
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