Hello
I am a new poster with a 17 1/3 year old daughter. Im a single mum with a man who comes and goes in and out of my life and keeps us above really but he has to work abroad a lot. My daughter just wants to give in. She has gotten worse since September. She is 17, doesnt go to college. We live in a relatively boring smalltown i cant afford to move out of. She has zero friends. She keeps telling me shes overweight at 70kg and 5ft 4 how isolated she feels and how bad her life is.we have done distance learning for a few years now. She has just 2 gcses a grade 9 in spanish and 8 in IT/computer sciences. I am afraid I cannot afford any more courses than the ones she is doing nor do i have money for the obvious which is to move out. We were reccommended an art course which she bloody hates, has very little desire or artistic talent, yet cost quite a bit and we are 3/5 of way through it. She says it makes her angry how the course constantly nags her to do extra at the weekend and for competitions. But shes just doing that and virtual language lesson once a week. She has been sleeping later, sometimes till 9am for some reason. I had a big fight with her dad over the other big issue which seems to be the completion of the DOFE program. She has done all sections except the Expedition. We did this through an open award centre, but were thoroughly disgusted with the trial day. She was expected to walk for 20 miles a day with a 15kg plus rucksack in the MIDDLE OF SUMMER and considering the summer we just had heat wise its a recipe for bleeding sunstroke and fainting. The girls she was put into a team with were a specimen and a half. They all came from hills road 6th form in cambridge, appeared to boast/talk about their A levels, a clique of 4 girls 5ft 7 and athletic who ignored my daughter. She says they are chavs with perfect teeth and piercings and she wouldnt share a tent with them. The food was another issue. You obviously cant bring fresh food so had to eat those icky Army type ration packs. She wont eat them especially the ones with meat over quality concern. So we had her do walks around our town. At about the 10k mark, her feet would be so bloodied and blistered with the bag and the boots we would have to pick her up. She is not unfit at all, she swims and does dance every week. Upon meeting with the expedition leader she asked if either parent could see her at a designated time of the day or night as she gets very sick when away alone at night from her parents except at nanas house. Doing this previously has led to a drinking episode and uncontrollable crying. The coordinator said no, ok, but then went on a tirade over how ridiculous she was being. The one bit I dont like is the fact i cant call her and she has to carry her own excrement around with her. When I next get paid, i was thinking to change to another open expedition, ths really expensive ones, but now she totally refuses to do one of any kind. At the beginning of last year she was really motivated to work, enjoyed her courses etc and we did her gcse at the end of this year and the rest of her gold dofe so she has done 4 out of 5 bits except this expedition but now she... I dont know. She is so obviously unhappy this year. Sorry for my amusing rant but what do I do?