“No devices with texting or phoning s’il vous plait!” Early yesterday morning I loaded my daughter on to a coach bound for Folkestone and the onward journey to Northern France, where she will be spending the next week with her school. Her excitement has been palpable for days.…
Stepfamilies make up more than 10% of all families in the UK and of these, 85% include a dependent child from the woman’s previous relationship, which would suggest there are more stepfathers than stepmothers. My family is one of these statistics. My husband is stepfather to my son, Teenager No.1…
Responsible drinking, responsible gambling, wherever we look there is a marketing message about behaving responsibly. But what about responsible parenting? Last weekend I went to the Capital FM Summertime Ball. It was a belated treat for my daughter’s coming of age as a teenager. We went with some friends and it was a…
This week my daughter, received an Achiever Award from the Jack Petchey Foundation. Until three months ago I had never heard of the foundation and when I asked my daughter’s Guide Leader who was responsible for nominating her, she looked aghast and said simply “Google it!” Having now familiarised myself…
An excerpt on the menopause on Polyoaks, the Radio 4 sitcom, had me in stitches. Faced with a disgruntled husband who is bemoaning his redundant sex life as he and his wife are arguing more now that she is going through the menopause, the doctor reminds him that women approach sex…
Last week I attended a lecture on adolescent health and the psychological challenges affecting young people. The talk touched on a variety of subject areas such as the value of adolescent friendships, exam stress, the impact of social media and the omnipresent threat of terrorism and its impact. The…
In December last year my husband suffered a stroke. I had seen the ads and read the leaflets countless times when waiting in the GP’s surgery, you know the ones from the campaign, ACT F.A.S.T, but he did not display any of those symptoms. He had booked some…
Hello and welcome to my blog Mother of Teenagers. I am Jo, a PR consultant for 20 years, now a freelance writer and blogger. Originally from Norfolk I harbour a passion to return to the coast and my guilty pleasure on a rare quiet afternoon is binge-watching Escape to…
