Why is it that your children will hound you constantly for a mobile phone, and finally when you give in to their constant pleading and bleating about how much safer it will be when they have one – there is no guarantee that they will ever answer it when you call!

Why is it that for years, the fashion of the day was for boys to wear their trousers, jeans or shorts as far down their bodies as they could, even if that meant that the waist band, and I repeat waist band, hangs down below their buttocks, pulled tighter with a belt, but not too tight because it is important to constantly pull them up an inch or two, for no reason other than to annoy their parents, who think the trousers are being hitched up… and then not. This was also accompanied with the ‘must-be-able-to-be-seen’ boxer shorts.

What’s more, the crotch of the trousers would end up at knee level, so that our new young male homo sapiens started to resemble the walk of penguins rather than of man. I am so pleased to say that those days have almost gone, to be replaced with who knows what!

I admit there are always fads in fashion and often fashion goes in cycles with the old fashions that I knew growing up, coming back to haunt me – such as the large patterned sun dresses, platform soles, hot pants (or short shorts) or an entirely new hippie generation. Although you have to admit, nothing beats the real ‘hippie generation’ that I grew up in.

I would like to share with you some teentrivia adapted from a book I read called – “Always go to bed on an Argument” by Deborah Ross and it resonated so much with me and my experience of teenagers that I thought some of you might relate to this. It proves that teenagers can be horrible, unless of course they want something from you, in which case the angel in them comes to visit – just for a short time, until they get what they want.

  1. Twelve out of every ten teenagers say they will put their plate in the dishwasher later.
  2. The number of teenagers for whom later means never – twelve out of every ten teenagers!
  3. The number of teenagers who think that being asked to perform a household chore is just totally interrupting their life – twelve out of ten teenagers!
  4. The number of towels on the floor of the bathroom or the floor of their bedroom equals exactly the number they can get away with before being told to pick them up.
  5. The number of teenagers who say they will pick their towels up later – twelve out of every ten teenagers!
  6. The number of years that teenage boys use Lynx (Africa) before realising that their mothers were right to ‘gag’ all these years – four years (age 13 – 17 years)

Some of the most common teenage sayings –

  • I would have called but I ran out of credit. (Hey Mum, can you top my phone up!)
  • Whateva!
  • I hate you … or You’re so mean
  • I have turned the sound down
  • Mummy, I love you – LOVE YOU … can you pick me up, drop me off, lend me some money.
  • Later – I will do it later, I promise
  • I got a detention because my teacher hates me

Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids who are now 18, 20 and 22, and then I have step kids who are 20, 23 and 26 (give or take a year or two)- we created our own Balmy Army!


What is most important to me, is that although parents have to endure the dramas, the look, the sigh, the moping and the grunting – this phase will pass … come back … pass…. come back … and hopefully pass forever.

I have three of the most wonderful kids you could ever ask for – kind, sensitive and caring. They all can give their Mum the most wonderful hugs, often without reason and always with feeling – and that just makes a Mum proud. They are our future, our future politicians, our future environmentalists, our future explorers and scientists. Never give up on your kids, love them unconditionally, guide them, support them and hopefully…..

.…one day they will have kids of their own!!