Category: Teenagers
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Australian Survives Horror Jelly Fish Attack In Italy
One of the gnawing fears you have when you make the decision to migrate to another country is that your children may respond to the beckoning call of the homeland once they are old enough to decide where they want to live. That worry has been brought home to me over the past few weeks…
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Crap Parent Therapy: ‘Consulting’ Rather Than ‘Enabling’
I had to go back for a session of ‘crap parent therapy’ last week, tail between my legs, following another situation with Kurt where the parenting shit hit the fan and the old man and I found ourselves sucked into another potential vacuum of despair. Patiently, the therapist reminded me for the umpteenth time about the…
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The Fashion Mistakes Teenagers Need To Make
We’ve been through a lot of stuff with our son Kurt, as many of you know, and I can’t deny that there have been occasions when I’ve felt a tad wistful as I’ve walked down the street and spotted groups of clean-shaven, preppy-looking boys in their Polo shirts and boating shoes. The weight of loss…
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When Your Child Has Mental Health Issues and You Want To Use The Get Out Of Jail Card
I’m tired of this particular journey. Self-absorbed I know, but there I said it. No “parent of the year” award for me; I’m the parent who loves her child but is tired of this arduous journey at his side. I’m tired of not sleeping, the stomach pains, the disagreements about the best way to raise…
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The Curse Of Anxiety, Dogs and Teenage Commitment
The dog has decided to upstage the rest of the family in the anxiety stakes. I am reliably informed that part of her condition can be blamed on her Poodle heritage, in which separation anxiety is a common issue, but the other part is either a question of osmosis ie. living with us, or a…
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The 5 Golden Rules Of Hosting A Teenage Party
We are those foolish parents who agreed to host a ‘gathering’ last weekend, for Kurt’s nineteenth birthday. He requested a party, but I naively thought that if I defined it as a ‘gathering’, his guests would not interpret the event as the opportunity to get shit-faced at someone else’s expense, throw food and chuck up…
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14 Ways To Achieve Fuck All On A Rainy Day
You might have gathered from the news that it’s been raining kangaroos and funnel web spiders here in Australia over the past few days. There’s this giant myth around the rest of the world that it’s sunny all year around here, and if you live in states of the country fortunate to have crocs and…
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It Takes A Village To Raise A Child…I Hope
Some people believe it takes a village to raise a child; in our case it will probably take a whole fucking city.The lengths you go to, to prevent your dysfunctional, magnet-attracting-trouble teenager, from creating havoc while you’re away. When Louisa Clare shared a post from Revolution From Home entitled In The Absence Of The Village,…
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The Best 28 Reasons To Leave Town When Teenage Boys Are On School Holidays
1.It will rain. 2.Because it will rain, the lingering smell of boy germs will be impossible to eradicate because teenage boys don’t process the word ‘deodorant’. Occasionally, this odour is diluted by what you swear is the smell of illicit smoking from out of their bedroom window. 3.First trip to the ER – when son’s…
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Do You Ever Stop Worrying About Your Children?
In the week that NC has achieved another milestone by passing her driving test, Kurt’s dangerous enthusiasm for life has escalated to a new hair-greying level. A text with ‘I’m all G’ doesn’t quite cut it at ten o’clock the morning after a sleepless work night spent waiting for the reassuring sound of your teenager’s…
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Entitled Gen Y And ‘No Dinner For Me, Thanks!’
It’s such a relief to reach Friday night and know that it’s take-out tonight. We’re going through this stage with Kurt and NC at the moment, as they transition between wanting to live at home and us wanting them to fly the nest, where we’re never quite sure how many we’re cooking for. All we…
LOUISA SIMMONDS 